Algerian FM Receives Personal Envoy of UN SG for Western Sahara

ALGIERS — The Algerian Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, National Community Abroad, and African Affairs, Ahmed Attaf received Sunday Staffan de Mistura, the Personal Envoy of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General for Western Sahara, who is currently on an official visit to Algeria, according to a statement from the ministry.

This visit is part of de Mistura’s regional tour ahead of his briefing to the UN Security Council on Western Sahara, scheduled for April 14, the source said. The UN envoy recently conducted similar visits, during which he held discussions with the parties to the conflict—namely the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front—as well as with the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, which, alongside Algeria, is considered one of the two observer countries in the UN-led process.

During the meeting, Attaf reaffirmed “Algeria’s full support for the efforts of UN Secretary-General António Guterres and his Personal Envoy, Staffan de Mistura, to revive a political settlement of the Western Sahara conflict, based on the UN Charter and the principles of international law related to decolonization.”

Attaf further expressed “Algeria’s firm conviction that the only path to completing the decolonization process in Western Sahara is through the resumption of direct negotiations between the parties to the conflict—the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front—without preconditions and in good faith. Such negotiations are essential to achieving a political solution that ensures the Sahrawi people can exercise their inalienable and imprescriptible right to self-determination, in line with all relevant UN resolutions, particularly those of the Security Council and the General Assembly.”