ALGIERS: Algeria said on Tuesday it was willing to back mediation between Morocco and Western Sahara’s Polisario Front in their dispute over the territory to achieve a “just and lasting” solution.
Algiers, which broke off relations with Rabat in 2021, had long called for a referendum on the Sahrawi people’s self-determination, unilaterally backing the pro-independence Polisario.
Tuesday’s move comes after the United Nations Security Council on October 31 voted in favor of Morocco’s plan for the territory, which would provide Western Sahara autonomy under the kingdom’s sole sovereignty.
Western Sahara is a vast mineral-rich former Spanish colony that is largely controlled by Morocco but has been claimed for decades by the Polisario Front.
“Algeria will spare no effort to support any mediation initiative between the two parties to the conflict, provided it falls within the UN framework and is based... on the fundamentals of a just, lasting and definitive solution,” Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said at a press conference.
The Security Council had previously urged Morocco, the Polisario Front, Algeria and Mauritania to resume talks to reach a broad agreement on the Western Sahara.
But at the initiative of US President Donald Trump’s administration, the council backed Rabat’s plan, which Morocco initially presented in 2007.
The resolution said “genuine autonomy could represent a most feasible outcome” under the plan to end the dispute.
Morocco must now update its proposal to reach “a final mutually acceptable solution,” according to the resolution.
Western Sahara remains on the UN list of non-self-governing territories.
The Polisario still demands a UN referendum on self-determination — promised under a 1991 ceasefire but never held.