The outstretched hand of His Majesty King Mohammed VI for a return to normality with Algeria was highlighted by the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, in his report to the Security Council on the Sahara.
In this respect, Guterres cited His Majesty the King’s speech on the occasion of the 24th anniversary of the accession of the Sovereign to the Throne of His glorious ancestors, indicating that His Majesty the King “expressed his hope that things return to normal with Algeria.”
In a clear attribution to Algeria of responsibility for the deterioration of relations with its Moroccan neighbor, the UNSG recalled that on December 29, 2022, Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune, speaking to the French daily Le Figaro, affirmed that “Algeria severed relations with Morocco to avoid war.”
Recognizing the bilateral nature of the dispute over the Sahara between Morocco and Algeria, Guterres declared in the same report that “the deterioration of relations between Algeria and Morocco remains worrying.”
He regretted “that no opportunity has yet been seized to bridge the gap between the two countries”, which he “encourages to re-establish dialogue to repair their relations and renew efforts aimed at regional cooperation, particularly with a view to create an environment conducive to peace and security”. A dialogue that Morocco has always advocated at the highest level, and which Algeria is ignoring, by pursuing its policy of hostility against its Moroccan neighbor.
Thus, the UN Secretary-General called the Security Council and the international community to witness on the one hand, the goodwill of the Kingdom for a normalization of relations with Algeria, and on the other hand, the clinging of the latter to a bellicose speech serving its perverse agenda of perpetuating the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara.
