After the decision taken on Friday by the UN Security Council to extend for one year the mission of Minurso (United Nations Mission for the Organization of a Referendum in Western Sahara), Algeria’s reaction was expected. On Sunday, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the national community established abroad expressed in a public statement “deep regret” for Algeria which “will not support this text” which “sorely lacks responsibility. “.
On Friday, October 29, resolution 2602, presented by the United States, was adopted by 13 votes in favor and two abstentions: Russia and Tunisia. An adoption in the face of which Algeria expresses all its disappointment. “Following the adoption by the United Nations Security Council of Resolution 2602 (2021) renewing the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Organization of a Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), Algeria expresses its deep regret regarding the fundamentally unbalanced approach enshrined in this text which sorely lacks responsibility and lucidity due to the unfortunate forcing of some of the influential members of the said Council ”, we read in the declaration.
The spokesperson stresses that “Algeria will not support this partial resolution which has the effect of reinforcing the exorbitant claims of the occupying state, whose intransigence it encourages and the maneuvers aimed at hampering and perverting the process of decolonization of the Western Sahara “. Better still, the country says it expects from the new personal envoy of the UN Secretary General for Western Sahara, “the implementation of Resolution 690 (1991), the settlement plan accepted by the two parties to the conflict, and adopted unanimously. by the Security Council ”.
In addition, Algeria calls on the international community to spare no effort to bring the two parties to “engage in direct and frank talks, without any preconditions” in accordance with the decision of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union. adopted in March 2021.
On Saturday, the Polisario Front, as one might expect, asserted that “the Saharawi people have no choice today but to continue and intensify their legitimate armed struggle to defend the sovereignty of their homeland. and to ensure the exercise of its inalienable and non-negotiable right to self-determination and independence ”.
