Algeria persists in not recognizing fiasco of separatism in Morocco’s Sahara

Algeria’s diplomacy refuses to look in the mirror as it continues to suffer setbacks in support of a Polisario separatist militia that has become a real liability for the military rulers in Algiers.

Algeria’s erratic diplomacy has reaped but defeats as the number of Polisario supporters has diminished to be limited to a handful of rogue states that depend on Algeria’s oil and gas charity.

Even in the Special Committee on Decolonization, in which Morocco was the first to list the Sahara territory when it was still under Spanish colonialism, the Polisario and its mentor Algeria are being dealt painful blows as more countries back Morocco’s autonomy proposal for the territory.

“Now, Algeria should make a choice: either to engage in a peaceful approach that respects the principles of neighborliness and peaceful conflict resolution, or to become entangled in the costly fiasco of its Polisario agenda, spending billions of dollars at the expense of the well-being of the Algerian people, who stand in line to obtain basic necessities,” Morocco’s Ambassador to the UN Omar Hilale told the C24 members.

Algeria should break away with its intransigence and take stock of three realities: The Sahara has always been Moroccan, autonomy under Morocco’s sovereignty is the only solution, and the development push will continue at a steady pace in the territory, said Hilale.

The works of the C24 were marked with vocal support for Morocco’s position on the conflict, starting with UN Security Council non-permanent member Sierra Leone that Algeria tried hard to instigate into adopting an anti-Moroccan stance in vain.

Sierra Leone, which has a consulate in the Sahara territory, backed Morocco’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as the autonomy plan.

Speaking on behalf of the GCC, Qatar expressed a similar stand backing Morocco’s right to restore its territorial integrity.

More recently, the central African republic made a similar stand in Rabat while Slovenia expressed support for the autonomy plan a few weeks after Algeria failed to use its gas export to the former Yugoslav republic in exchange for supporting the Polisario militias.

These diplomatic developments show that Rabat is always steps ahead of Algeria and that the Polisario will soon be an Algerian problem.

Morocco ended the conflict militarily and is now consolidating diplomatic gains in defending its legitimate rights to its pre-colonial territorial integrity.