Amid the rapidly evolving situation in the Western Sahara conflict, Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf announced his country's readiness to support any mediation initiative between Morocco and the Polisario Front, stating that this comes"from the standpoint of the responsibilities incumbent upon it as a neighboring country to the two parties to the conflict."
This statement sparked widespread controversy among experts, who agreed that the Algerian offer was nothing more than a political maneuver aimed at escaping forward and circumventing international legitimacy.
Experts emphasize that this statement reflects a profound state of denial and confusion within Algerian diplomacy, especially after autonomy became the sole political basis for any negotiations. Consequently, analysts argue that Algeria's claim to offer mediation lacks all the elements of impartial and neutral mediation, given its historical involvement in establishing the separatist entity and supporting it with money and weapons.
In this context, Lahcen Akartit, a researcher in international relations, said: “The statement by Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf regarding Algeria’s mediation is, in my opinion, a policy of running away from the problem and an attempt to evade responsibility,” stressing that “all Security Council resolutions were clear in identifying Algeria as a key party in this fabricated conflict over the Moroccan Sahara.”
The same researcher adds in a statement to Hespress that “historical data proves that Algeria is one of the founding countries of the separatist entity and supports it militarily and financially, and accordingly it has the decision of the Polisario Front and has led a proxy war against the Kingdom of Morocco by supporting the Polisario.”
Aqritit believes that this statement is “an attempt to circumvent Resolution 2797 and to circumvent international legitimacy regarding this conflict.” He continued: “The statement reflects a severe state of denial, which is a pathological condition, as Algeria finds itself besieged internationally; this is because autonomy has become the heart of international legitimacy and the only political basis for any negotiations.”
The same expert confirms that international actors, through the consensus achieved within the Security Council, “have taken a very positive stance regarding the autonomy initiative presented by Morocco, and as a result, the Algerian regime is facing a dilemma in its inability to manage the narrative that it has established and consolidated within Algeria.”
For his part, Abdel Fattah El Fathi, a strategic expert on the Sahara conflict and director of the Sahara and Africa Center for Strategic Studies, affirms that “the new Algerian statement does not hide the extent of the international isolation that Algerian diplomacy is experiencing due to the lack of cooperation with international institutions, such as the UN Security Council, in implementing its resolutions on the Sahara.”
In a statement to Hespress, Al-Fatihi points out that this comes as a result of “Algeria’s continued financial and military support for the Polisario Front, leading to further tension and threatening the values of international peace and security,” adding that “Algeria insists on continuing to work to obstruct the various paths to finding a political settlement to resolve the Sahara conflict.”
The same expert believes that the Algerian Foreign Minister’s announcement of his country’s readiness to provide support for any mediation initiative is “a claim that lacks all the elements of fair and impartial mediation,” stressing that “Algeria is a major party in the Sahara conflict, where it appoints itself as guardian of its creation, the Polisario Front.”
In a related context, Al-Fatihi believes that Algeria, “contrary to the international consensus, insists on supporting a separatist organization with money and weapons, which threatens the values of international peace and security in the region; and as long as it rejects international mediations, the claim of supporting mediation is an attempt to polish its image in the course of the conflict.”
The expert concludes his analysis by saying that “this media outburst is an attempt to catch the breath of Algerian diplomacy, which is exhausted by the failure to undermine the international will to find a political settlement to the Sahara conflict. Thus, it is trying as much as possible to evade the recommendations documented by the UN Security Council regarding the census of those detained in the Tindouf camps and obliging the Polisario Front to comply with the conditions of Military Agreement No. 1 for a ceasefire, and to enter into serious negotiations based on the autonomy initiative.”
