Morocco Rejects Algeria’s Call to Expand UN Mission in Western Sahara

In the eyes of Majda Moutchou, the Kingdom’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, this demand is a "selective political manipulation" and a "flagrant double standard" on the part of the Algerian delegation. The MINURSO mandate "has been clearly defined by the Security Council, and any attempt by the Algerian delegation to distort its role is either misinformed or deliberately misleading," she stressed. The Moroccan diplomat questioned the reasons why the Algerian delegation "is focusing only on MINURSO while ignoring other peacekeeping operations."

Moutchou took care to specify that it "is neither a systematic rule nor an exception; it is a decision made on a case-by-case basis." "Despite the persistent and desperate attempts of this same delegation, in October 2024, the Security Council unanimously rejected the inclusion of a human rights monitoring mechanism in the MINURSO mandate. This rejection was not accidental: it reaffirmed that the human rights situation in the Moroccan Sahara does not require such a mechanism," she recalled.

The Moroccan diplomat is surprised by Algeria’s attitude, because the population of the Tindouf camps, located on Algerian territory, "lives, she stressed, under daily oppression, deprived of its fundamental rights and subject to severe restrictions on movement and flagrant violations of international law." Responding to the Algerian ambassador who mentioned the issue of the right to self-determination, Moutchou condemned a "troubling contradiction." She explained that for Algeria, self-determination "is a selective concept used as a political weapon against the territorial integrity of Morocco, while being conveniently ignored when it comes to the legitimate aspirations of other peoples, still under foreign occupation and oppression."