Algeria seeks Russia veto at Security Council over Western Sahara

Algeria’s Foreign Minister, Ahmed Attaf, has met with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on the sidelines of the 80th UN General Assembly in New York to discuss Western Sahara, according to Yabiladi, September 28.

Western Sahara, a scolding geopolitical contention between local inhabitants, Algeria and Morocco, was the focal point of discussions between the two foreign ministers, according to Algerian diplomats.

In a similar vein, the Russians also released a statement from the Foreign Ministry confirming the contents of the meeting, which said “an exchange of views took place on current global and regional issues, particularly the situation in the Middle East and the Sahara-Sahel region.”

It’s the latest high-level diplomatic discussion to occur in the past few weeks concerning the ‘Sahara Dossier,’ with Attaf recently holding similar talks with Trump officials Christopher Landau, Deputy Secretary of State, and Massad Boulos, Special Advisor to President Donald Trump for Africa. These discussions were reported to have once again confirmed America’s newfound support for Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory as a means to ending the decades-long conflict in the region.

To this end, it is expected that the US will make serious moves to follow through with this commitment at the next Security Council meeting in October.

For these reasons, in a move of desperation, Algiers is turning to another powerful Security Council member, Russia. Crucially, the nation has one of the only veto powers, which Attaf is hoping can be used to block the Morocco-favoured, American-drafted resolution plans on Western Sahara.

Should the US resolution somehow pass the Security Council, it is set to be the biggest status quo shake-up in the conflict in several decades, and could possibly have the potential to interfere with the work of MINURSO (the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara) in a territory which has been de-facto controlled by Morocco since it was abandoned by its former colonial power of Spain in 1975.

50 years on from the conflict’s beginning, Morocco has never been closer to achieving its ambitions.

The Russian-Algerian meeting in New York this week follows a separate meeting a few days prior between the Commander of Algeria’s army, General Saïd Chengriha, and a Russian delegation led by Shugaev Dimitry, director of the Federal Service for Military Cooperation.

That meeting appears to demonstrate the diplomatic growth between the two nations, with a statement from the Algerian Ministry of National Defence revealing Dimitry and Chengriha discussed military cooperation, shared interests and common points of analyses.

However, Morocco is also seeking the cooperation of Russia at this critical time for their claim over the territory. In their case, they are hoping that Russia will instead choose to abstain on the Security Council vote, which leaves Russia in an extremely privileged position that could mean deciding the future of the region generally and the semi-independent territory of Western Sahara specifically.

Yabiladi, Algerian Ministry of National Defence, Maghrebi.org