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The settlement of the conflict in Western Sahara requires only the option of self-determination enshrined in resolution 2797 adopted last Friday by the UN Security Council. This solution sweeps away biased readings according to which the autonomy plan, cited in the final version, would be the final outcome of this 50-year-old conflict. This was emphasized by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Attaf in an interview with the international news channel AL24 News.
“Morocco has lost the link it wanted to create between autonomy and self-determination. The right to self-determination for the Sahrawi people was finally recognized in accordance with international law, the Charter of the United Nations and the resolutions which enshrine this right,” indicated the head of Algerian diplomacy.
He notably revealed the underside of the debates and the behind the scenes before the adoption of this resolution. Above all, he revealed how Morocco attempted in vain what he described as a “passage by force”, by trying to impose its autonomy plan as an exclusive solution for the settlement of the conflict.
The head of Algerian diplomacy listed Morocco’s objectives, namely putting an end to the UN mission on the self-determination referendum in Western Sahara (Minurso) or, at least, modifying the content of its mandate.
“Ultimately, Minurso was neither dissolved nor deprived of its prerogatives. Instead, his mission was extended for an additional year, and not for three months as was originally planned. Renewal according to usage,” said Ahmed Attaf.
According to Mr. Attaf, “the parties to the conflict have been clearly identified: Morocco and the Polisario Front. The ambiguity maintained by Rabat to transform this dispute into a “Moroccan-Algerian” conflict no longer exists. Algeria is not and has never been a party to the conflict, as confirmed by the resolution. A response to Moroccan propaganda to involve Algeria in the question of Western Sahara by trying to make it a stakeholder while obscuring the Sahrawi party, the main one concerned.
Finally, Mr. Attaf reiterated Algeria’s conviction that the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination remains the cornerstone of any solution, revealing in passing that the eight countries that participated in the modification of the resolution presented by the United States were in agreement on this point.
Attaf receives his Sahrawi counterpart
Furthermore, the head of Algerian diplomacy received yesterday the Minister of Foreign Affairs and African Affairs of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Mohamed Salem Ould Salek.
During this meeting, discussions mainly focused on the examination and evaluation of the results of the debates held in October at the UN Security Council concerning the question of Western Sahara, and on the adoption of resolution No. 2797 aimed at renewing for one year the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
According to a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two ministers welcomed the maintenance, by the adopted resolution, of the principles and bases of a just, lasting and definitive solution to the conflict in Western Sahara, emphasizing the need to conduct negotiations between the two parties to the conflict, the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front.
They also affirmed on the occasion that the solution must be accepted by both parties, while emphasizing that this solution must allow the Sahrawi people to exercise their right to self-determination, adds the same source.
Regarding the renewal of the mandate of MINURSO for one year, the two ministers welcomed this decision, in accordance with the proposal presented by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the Security Council on this subject, the press release indicated.
In light of these data, the two ministers exchanged their views on the prospects of the political process sponsored by the United Nations, with a view to enabling the parties to the conflict to reach a just, lasting and definitive settlement of the question of Western Sahara, guaranteeing the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of international law and the constant doctrine of the United Nations on decolonization.