Now that Algeria has agreed to go to Geneva as a stakeholder in the Sahara conflict alongside Morocco, Mauritania and the Polisario, the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy Horst Köhler is only waiting for the resolution of the Security Council – to be adopted by the end of October – to continue his approach of rapprochement between the protagonists.
The Former German President Köhler is trying to bring the political process out of the deadlock that has been lasting since 2012 and to reach a mutually acceptable solution to the Western Sahara conflict.
A regional conflict that opposes Morocco and Algeria, while the separatist Polisario front is used as a proxy in this conflict, instrumentalized by the Algerian regime in its old rivalry with Morocco.
Morocco strongly defends the autonomy plan presented to the Security Council in 2007, while Algeria and the Polisario cling to the idea of independence.
Yet, no major capital wants to endorse such an adventure as the risk is great and the consequences unpredictable, especially in the Sahel-Sahara region that is so vulnerable to terrorist and jihadist movements.
Moreover, the Security Council, in its resolution 2414 of 27 April 2018, calls on the various parties to make progress in the search for a realistic, pragmatic and sustainable political solution to the Western Sahara issue, a recommendation that the UN envoy certainly puts on the top of his diplomatic approach.
