In France, the idea of an “international conference” for the settlement of the question of Western Sahara is supported by a collective of academics, in a Tribune published in the French daily Le Monde. Its authors say they are concerned about the prospect of seeing the territorial dispute degenerate “into a conventional war” between Morocco and Algeria. Also, they call on “European states to get more involved” to avoid such an escalation.
“Fifty years after the outbreak of an interminable war, Western Sahara remains a thorn for all the parties involved in one of the oldest decolonization conflicts (…) The Sahrawis can’t wait any longer. Desperation pushes some of them to engage in the battles which are tearing the Sahel apart and which accompany all the traffic of the century, from drugs to arms”, indicates the collective.
“The Moroccans – who control most of the territory – are waiting, despite their diplomatic successes, for international recognition that is not coming. For the Algerians – who support the Sahrawi cause – the maintenance of a separatist enclave in the middle of the desert is expensive and complicates their relations with many African and Western states”, note the authors of the forum.
And to wonder: “who can intervene to put an end to this anomaly?”. The former President of the United States, Donald Trump “has tried his hand at it, in his own way, his view of the Middle East. Its recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, in December 2020, relaunched the regional crisis more than it advanced the file”, they note.
So they turn to France, “which has a history with this territory”, to provide the solution. “It is indeed Paris which fixed the current Algerian-Moroccan borders by widening the Algerian territory. France, which intends to reconsider the past with its former colonial empire, with Algeria in particular, cannot turn its gaze away from the conflict in Western Sahara”, they underline.
As a reminder, France had tried to include the question of Western Sahara on the agenda of the summit of Euro-Mediterranean countries, which was scheduled for September 30 in Alicante, had revealed the agency EFE. Paris had justified its initiative, hailed by the Algerian and Polisario media, by the possible “repercussions” that “this conflict could have in the context of the energy and gas supply crisis in Europe”. Finally, the conclave was postponed to a later date, due to Pedro Sanchez being infected with Covid-19.