UN Resolution on the Sahara: Four questions for teacher-researcher M’hammed Belarbi

The professor-researcher at Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakech, M’hammed Belarbila, comments in an interview with MAP on the UN resolution adopted by the Security Council on the eve of the celebration of the 45th anniversary of the glorious Green March, highlighting the preeminence of the Moroccan autonomy initiative, while underlining the role of Algeria in the persistence of the conflict around the Moroccan nature of the Sahara.

The UN Security Council has just adopted resolution 2548, which once again reaffirms the relevance of the Moroccan position. How do you assess this resolution?

Through its resolution 2548, the Security Council has placed the dispute over the Sahara in its true regional context. Algeria’s status as an actor and stakeholder in this conflict has been confirmed by the UN resolution. Indeed, by underlining the importance of Algeria’s engagement in the political process relating to this conflict, said resolution carries a message of clarity.

In this regard, it should be noted that, unlike previous resolutions, the latter quotes Algeria five times, thus affirming its role in the financing and support of the Polisario Front. So through the new resolution, the Security Council calls on Algeria to assume its political, diplomatic, military and humanitarian involvement in this regional conflict. No political process is possible without the effective and constructive involvement of this neighboring country. In short, the new resolution paves the way for deeper negotiations between the parties.

From this perspective, only the autonomy plan proposed in 2007 by Morocco to resolve the conflict in the Sahara represents a realistic, practicable and lasting political solution.

The resolution insists on the role of Algeria as the main party in this artificial conflict. How to explain that Algiers continues to ignore the calls of the international community asking it to get involved effectively in the political process for the settlement of this regional conflict?

The Algerian executive cannot yet digest that the referendum line is postponed indefinitely. In fact, the Sahara issue has traditionally been placed at the center of the influence struggles of the Algerian regime. However, the latest UN Council resolution 2548 suggests that this method of settlement is not the most appropriate to settle this conflict and that a political outcome, acceptable to all, should be found.

Maintaining the status quo like holding the referendum, no one believes in it. The current global and regional context imposes serious limits on this traditional instrumentalisation of the Saharan dossier for the purposes of the Algerian regime’s internal policy. The latter must not only take care of its internal political stability, but also work to resolve the Saharan conflict. Admittedly, by appearing to reconnect with the diplomatic choices of these predecessors in terms of management of the Sahara conflict, the current Algerian head of state is trying to adopt a populist policy that fits well in the Algerian political tradition of agitating the Saharan spectrum for domestic political purposes. However, in a country where the heroic moment of the Liberation War is the basis of power, the Algerian military hardly needed to exploit the rivalry with Morocco to maintain their legitimacy.

What do you think of the worrying increase in violations and provocations by the “polisario”?

The blackmail through the recent events in El Guerguerat constitutes a futile attempt to put pressure on the Security Council. In this context, the Security Council, while calling on the Polisario to cease its provocations and violations of military agreements, hailed Morocco’s “serious” and “credible” efforts in the process of political settlement of the Sahara issue. In resolution 2548, the Security Council joins the Secretary-General’s report in its concern over the recurrent violations of the 1991 Military Accord and the real threat to the ceasefire. Should it be recalled that the Security Council had, from its resolution 2414 of 2018, asked the Polisario to carry out “its immediate withdrawal” from the buffer zone of Guergarate, and “to refrain from engaging in such destabilizing acts? Which could compromise the political process.

The United Arab Emirates have just inaugurated a consulate general in Laayoune. How do you see this dynamic of opening Consulates General of African and Arab countries in the southern provinces of the Kingdom?

Despite the fact that the opening of consulates of friendly countries in the Saharan provinces was not mentioned by the Security Council in resolution 2548, this is an important achievement in terms of national sovereignty. . That said, the Kingdom does indeed have the advantage of the terrain and continues to establish its legitimacy in this territory, in particular with the opening of several consular representations in the cities of the South.

Likewise, this diplomatic success through the opening of consulates will allow Morocco to attract investment flows and economically develop the region.