Algerian rulers have been clearly stung by the latest statements made by Moroccan ambassador to Geneva, Omar Hilale, according to informed sources in the Algerian capital. Algerian officials deemed as challenging the Moroccan ambassador’s unvarnished depiction of the ties existing between Algeria and the Polisario.
Omar Hilale’s “sin” lies in the fact that he has imperturbably deconstructed before the UN Human Rights Council the arguments put forward by Algeria which stubbornly denies having any role in the Western Sahara conflict and insists to be a mere observer country.
Responding at once to the Algerian ambassador, the Moroccan diplomat listed the various forms of support that Algeria extends to the Polisario, the most obvious of which being the very creation of the separatist Front.
According to the same sources, this exposé infuriated Algerian leaders, all the more so as it translates the truth: after 40 years of existence, the Polisario continues to drag the stigma of its original sin. Actually, despite the political, financial and diplomatic support of Algeria- the Polisario leaders travel with Algerian passports and petrodollars- the separatist Front did not succeed to gain recognition by any major international power.
So far, the very few African or Latin American countries that still recognize the Polisario-proclaimed Sahrawi republic are those which made the decision in response to the generosity of Boumediene’s Algeria and Gaddafi’s Libya.
That was back in the 70s and 80s of the last century. At that time, a pundit of Maghreb affairs, commenting on the situation, said that the irrational advent of a republic of the desert is the mere product of the Gaddafi-Boumediene collusion and the result of a surplus of petrodollars.
Polisario: What Happened in Geneva that Infuriated Algiers
