A senior American official, who has conducted humanitarian missions for the State Department, has reportedly arrived at the Polisario-controlled Tindouf camps for talks with the Algeria-backed separatist group on dismantling these camps.
According to press reports, State Department humanitarian officer Tabari Dossett has been assigned this mission which comes few days after the meeting held in Turkey between U.S. senior Presidential advisor Massad Boulos and Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf.
The move demonstrates the U.S. commitment to advance the implementation of the autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty in line with UN Security Council resolution 2797.
Tabari’s travel to the Polisario camps also comes ahead the two meetings scheduled this month by UNSC on the Sahara. The first Sahara meeting is planned for April 24, while the second is set for April 30 with a strategic review of the MINURSO.
These meetings build on the diplomatic momentum spearheaded by the U.S. and United Nations following the adoption of the historic UNSC resolution 2797 endorsing Morocco’s Autonomy plan under the Kingdom’s sovereignty.
During the April meetings, Security Council members will receive closed-doors briefings by Head of MINURSO Alexander Ivanko and UN Sahara envoy Staffan de Mistura on the progress of the UN-led political process based on resolution 2797. They will also assess the performance of the UN Sahara mission amid Trump’s new policy of eliminating failed UN peacekeeping missions to streamline bureaucracy, reduce costs and restore accountability
Several U.S. Think-Tanks and experts have called for dismantling Polisario Camps in Tindouf after the UN Security Council endorsed Morocco’s Autonomy Plan in the Sahara.
They say that more than half of the Tindouf camps’ residents are technically not refugees from the Sahara but, rather, moved to the camps from elsewhere in Algeria, Mali, Mauritania or even Sudan.
In an Op-Ed published in the Middle East Forum, Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official, said the Algerian authorities inflate deliberately the number of those held in Tindouf camps to bilk donors and embezzle international aid.
“With the UN endorsing Morocco’s autonomy plan for the Sahara, there is no reason the Sahrawis cannot go home. Morocco now has a decades-long record showing generous treatment and integration of returnees, said the MEF analyst, stressing that this does not mean amnesty!
