Recent threats by Bachir Mustapha Sayed that the Polisario will resort to arms again are not inadvertent. The threats were whispered in his ears by a senior member of the Algerian Military intelligence Services (DRS), according to informed sources in Tindouf.
The objective of this agitation, stirred by the obscure DRS, is precisely to make noise. They try to attract the attention of the media, even if such attention is rather unlikely, in an attempt to bring out the Polisario from a disastrous oblivion.
According to the same sources, the goal is largely justified. For the past three years, the Algeria-backed Polisario Front has only been mentioned in cases of kidnappings, trafficking and in the wars in the region. In the war in Libya, Polisario elements fought with Gaddafi, Polisario elements were implicated in the war in Mali, and Polisario elements were involved in various trafficking operations and robberies in the Sahara-Sahel desert.
However, the Polisario’s threats to take up arms are deemed by the same sources as being not only anachronistic but also totally counterproductive.
First, the threats are going against the international consensus that has opted for finding a negotiated political settlement to the Western Sahara issue, under the auspices of the UN Security Council.
Second, any Polisario military operation against Morocco would put Algiers at the forefront in the eyes of the international community. All world capitals without any exception are well aware that the Polisario, whose headquarters is located in Tindouf on Algerian territory, is only an instrument in the hands of the Algerian power, used to maintain constant pressure on Morocco.
Exerting pressure on Morocco has actually become one of Algiers’ top concerns, to such a point that authorities finance conferences and symposia in Algeria on the matter. The latest such event was a summer school organized for officers of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Algerian academics were entrusted with instructing SADR leaders how to exert “constant pressure” on Morocco.
Bachir Mustapha Sayed: the DRS’ out-of-date Message
