Sep. 5 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Algerian Foreign Minister, Ramtane Lamamra, appealed this Monday to the United Nations special envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, to resume dialogue to establish “direct negotiations” between Morocco and the Polisario Front on the conflict in the Occidental Sahara.
In a brief statement, the Algerian side assures that the objective of this conversation is “to reach a fair, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution that guarantees the Saharawi people their “inalienable right to self-determination”, according to the state news agency PHC.
The meeting between Lamamra and De Mistura comes after the UN envoy for Western Sahara met on Sunday with the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, in the Saharawi refugee camps.
The Polisario Front’s representative to the United Nations, Sidi Mohamed Omar, assured on Sunday that De Mistura’s trip is pertinent due to “Moroccan intransigence against international legitimacy and its continuous violations and repression unleashed in the cities of Western Sahara,” according to a statement from the Polisario Front.
Staffan de Mistura was appointed to the position in November 2021. He then made his first tour of the region with stops in Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria and Tindouf, in southwestern Algeria, where the Saharawi refugees who fled the area are settled. after the Moroccan invasion.
The former Spanish colony of Western Sahara was occupied by Morocco in 1975 despite resistance from the Polisario Front. The 1991 ceasefire was signed with a view to holding a self-determination referendum, but differences over the preparation of the census and the inclusion or not of Moroccan settlers have so far prevented it from being called.
In addition, the Polisario has considered the 1992 ceasefire broken after the eviction of Saharawi activists from the Guerguerat border crossing with Mauritania by Moroccan military forces in November 2020. Rabat considers the area between the post and the border with Mauritania as ‘ no man’s land’, while the Polisario Front considers it its own territory.
The latest twist in the dispute is the explicit support of the Spanish Government for the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco for consultation between the Saharawi and Moroccan populations living in the territory.
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