By Manal Abdel Fattah
France is preparing to announce its support for the Moroccan Sahara, through official recognition and support for the autonomy plan for the Moroccan Sahara under the full sovereignty of the Kingdom of Morocco, and Algeria has taken note of its decision.
Immediately after that, the Algerian Foreign Ministry issued an angry statement expressing its denunciation of the French government’s decision.
Algeria’s reaction, according to observers, is considered exaggerated and interferes with a sovereign decision of a country that holds the position of a permanent member of the UN Security Council, which is exclusively entrusted with examining the dispute over the southern provinces of the Kingdom of Morocco.
France had paved the way for political recognition of the Moroccan status of the Sahara, with economic recognition.
The French government had previously expressed its readiness to invest in the Sahara and its support for the projects launched by the Kingdom of Morocco in its southern provinces.
Before France, Algeria had entered into a diplomatic crisis with Spain against the backdrop of its support for the autonomy proposal in March 2022, and it recalled its ambassador from Madrid for consultations.
It also decided to suspend the “Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborhood and Cooperation” with Madrid, as well as freeze foreign trade operations for products and services to and from. Spain.
France’s recognition of the Moroccan Sahara is in addition to the positions of active Western countries at the international level, which supported the autonomy proposal within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty over the Moroccan Sahara, and this concerns America, Spain, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, in addition to most Arab and African countries.
The French recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara is of great importance, as it adds to the United States, the other permanent member, which previously recognized the Moroccan Sahara in December 2020.
On the other hand, looking at the Algerian Foreign Ministry’s statement, it is clear that Algeria has proven to be a key party to the conflict, despite its constant refusal to participate in the round tables called for by the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Stefan De Mistura.
In response to this, the French Press Agency touched on, in its clipping, today, Thursday, Algeria’s expression of “strong denunciation” of the position of the French government, which informed it “in recent days” of its decision to recognize the Moroccan status of the Sahara and support the “autonomy” plan under the sovereignty of Rabat, where it stated The same media platform, within the same news clipping, stated that the office of the French Foreign Minister refused to comment to “Agence France-Presse” on the statement of the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the agency stressed that “France had previously expressed its clear and continuous support for the autonomy proposal during the visit of Foreign Minister Stephane Ségournet.” To Morocco, last February, which contributed to improving relations between Paris and Rabat.”
