Algerian diplomacy opposed the new resolution 2654 voted Thursday, October 27 by the UN Security Council on the Sahara, in a statement published Saturday, October 29.
“The consideration by the Security Council of the report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, which includes the views of his Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, offered the Council a valuable opportunity to influence the situation in the direction of the effective promotion of decolonization territory through the exercise by its people of their inalienable right to self-determination”, states the text.
The document goes on to state that “Resolution 2654 adopted on October 27, 2022 results, like its predecessors since the occupying power’s questioning of its commitments to the settlement plan carried by resolution No. 690 (1991), from a laborious drafting exercise devoid of the will to guide and stimulate efforts to preserve the nature of the question of Western Sahara and to scrupulously apply to it the doctrine and good practices of the United Nations in matters of decolonization”.
For Algerian diplomacy, “the Personal Envoy, Staffan de Mistura, whose approach Algeria understands and encourages, deserved that the Security Council strengthen him with a proactive mandate and vigorous support to ensure him the same level of cooperation between the two parties, the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front, in particular of the occupying power, whose preconditions aim to make conceivable a parody of a solution resulting in territorial annexation by force and a fait accompli”.
Algeria considers itself “animated by a high sense of its responsibilities, both towards the people of Western Sahara and towards the region as a whole, as regards the effectiveness of the United Nations”, but “notes with regret a serious risk of distortion and erosion of the process which would be detrimental to regional peace, stability and security”.
Resolution 2654 extended for one year the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Organization of a Referendum in Western Sahara (Minurso). She highlighted the importance for the parties concerned (Morocco, the Polisario front, Algeria and Mauritania) “to dialogue with the personal envoy in the process throughout its duration; in a spirit of realism and compromise with a view to making it a success”.
The text was voted on by 13 votes, with two abstentions (Russia and Kenya). “This is the place to salute the position adopted by Russia and Kenya that the Security Council would have gained from following to do useful work,” the statement said.
By OMA Newsletter N° 918 of 31/10/2022
Article published under the direction of Dr. Najib Kettani
The OMA, NGO with an Intercontinental vocation
For the development of cultural exchanges
Valuing human potential
The promotion and consolidation of Africa’s development, and
Inter-African integration
