Algeria’s attacks on Sahara autonomy plan vindicate Morocco

Algeria’s president Abdelmadjid Tebboune and his foreign minister have tried to belittle autonomy plan for the Sahara territory, in a context of growing support for this Moroccan initiative.

Tebboune called it a “myth” and insisted on holding a referendum for independence, an obsolete option that proved its unfeasibility and which was abandoned by the UN itself since 2007, the year Morocco put forward the autonomy plan.

Parroting Tebboune, foreign minister Ahmed Attaf rehashing the cold-war worn-out rhetoric of Algeria defending the Sahrawis to determine their fate.

These were rare remarks on the autonomy plan by the Algerian president, amid growing international support for Morocco’s full sovereignty over the territory.

The recent French position, on the footsteps of the US, recognize Morocco’s full territorial integrity including the Sahara territory, while at least 100 UN-member states consider the autonomy plan as serious and credible.

As the Polisario dissipates, Algeria ended decades-long policy of backstage acts to perform onstage, defending a separatist thesis that it has for long failed to sugarcoat as a self-determination issue.

Self-determination was practiced by the Sahraouis within the Sahara territory under Moroccan sovereignty where voter turnout is the highest in the country.

Meanwhile, Algeria had better apply self-determination at home in response to the growing demands of the seven-million strong Kabylie nation, which has all the assets of a nation attached to modern day Algeria by French colonialism.

Morocco has made it clear that no UN-process is possible without the participation of Algeria in good faith as the main party to the conflict.