Algeria-Western Sahara: Explicit, encoded messages in Bouteflika-Sahrawi President's meeting
الشروق أونلاين
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Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika received his Sahrawi counterpart Mohamed Abdelaziz. Photo: APS
Algeria President, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, received, on Sunday in Algiers, his Sahrawi counterpart, the General-Secretary of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, a meeting which carries more of an encrypted “message” for more than one hand, given the temporal context, and the nature of the high attendance, which was accompanied at the reception ceremony.
Sahrawi President, and following his meeting with Bouteflika, said that the meeting was “An opportunity to tell Algeria about the developments of the Saharawi cause, and was an opportunity to review the strong and well-rooted bilateral relationships between the two countries, and the prospects of their development.”
“We exchanged views on the situation in the region and the African continent in particular”.
Circumstances of this meeting are linked mainly to the visit of the UN envoy, Kristopher Ross, who started on Monday, his tour to the region.
Algeria and Mauritania are observers of the negotiations between the Polisario and the Kingdom of Morocco, which means, according to observers that it is an explicit expression of their full support of Sahrawis to self-determination, and President Mohamed Abdelaziz was keen to communicate this to the public opinion.
“I had to meet with President Bouteflika at a very sensitive time. I have a great appreciation for the attention of Algerian President for the Sahrawi issue and bilateral relationships.”
“I want to recall that President Bouteflika was the first Arab and Algerian leader who visited Sahrawi people, and had an opportunity to meet him directly, as he assured us of Algeria’s position on that visit, and I transmit its greetings and appreciation, and confirm the permanent and supportive position of Algeria without conditions for the fair Saharawi cause, in line with the United Nations’ resolutions and the requirements of international law, with the necessity and inevitability of the restoration of the Saharawi people of their national and legitimate rights, freedom, self-determination and independence through a free and democratic referendum”.
“Bouteflika reiterated Algeria’s determination to move forward in the consolidation of relationships with the Sahrawi, Arab and Democratic Republic, as a brother and a neighbor country.”
