Newsweek: Instable Algeria backs Polisario with money, weapons & military training

Newsweek has affirmed that the Algerian regime supports the Polisario armed militia with money, weapons and military training, noting that the world does not need another crisis in North Africa.

Rabat and Algiers are locked into a decades-long struggle over the Sahara, said the U.S. magazine in an Op-Ed authored by Gordon Chang who described the Polisario as Algeria’s proxy used by the ruling military junta against the neighboring Kingdom.

“Morocco is stable and peaceful, but Algeria and the rest of the region are particularly troubled,” Thomas Riley, former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco, told the American magazine, underlinng the fundamental unsustainability of the secessionist aims of the polisario.

“Western Sahara would not be a sustainable state,” underlined the diplomat, saying it is hard to see the benefits of a micro-state living in perpetual turbulence due to the instability plaguing the Sahel Saharan region.

Morocco’s sovereignty over its Saharan territory is recognized by “65 countries, including the United States as of 2020”, said the columnist, stressing that nearly 30 states have opened consulates in Moroccan Sahara.

“In a world now dividing into camps, Washington should back friends and not enemies,”

“Beijing is channeling money through Iran and its proxies to Morocco’s enemies, especially the Polisario,” Jonathan Bass, energy consultant InfraGlobal Partners, told Newsweek, referring to the high geopolitical stakes of the showdown and escalating tension between Morocco and Algeria.

Emboldened by his recent diplomatic triumphs in the Arab Gulf, South America, and Europe, Chinese President Xi Jinping is turning his attention to other areas, including four North African countries: Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Tunisia, said the U.S. magazine.

“Morocco is a natural partner of America,” said Mr. Riley, who served in the North African Kingdom from 2003 to 2009. The viewpoint is shared by the columnist who argued that the U.S. and the broader international community have an interest in stability, and thus in Morocco maintaining control.