By sending a letter to the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, is the Polisario Front truly defending its own interests or those of Algeria? An analysis. Following the leak of the draft United Nations Security Council resolution on Western Sahara, prepared by the United States and submitted to Council members, the Polisario Front has attempted to react by sending a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres. «With this letter, the Polisario leadership is merely speaking on behalf of Algeria», analyst Bachir Dkhil told Yabiladi. «By insisting on 'sharing the cost of peace,' Algiers is indirectly urging Washington to pressure Morocco into making economic concessions in the region. After more than fifty years of financing the Polisario, Algeria does not want to walk away empty-handed. Having made the Sahara issue a central pillar of its foreign and domestic policy, it now seeks compensation», said Dkhil, a former founding member of the Polisario who joined Morocco in 1992. Mohammed VI Invites Algeria to Join the Atlantic Initiative In November 2001, former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika proposed to then-UN envoy James Baker the idea of «partition», an option accepted by the Polisario but firmly rejected by Morocco. This same proposal resurfaced last October when UN envoy Staffan de Mistura presented it in a closed briefing to the Security Council, once again dismissed by Rabat. Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita publicly urged De Mistura «to reveal who suggested this idea and who encouraged him to present a project that was dead on arrival». «Beyond echoing Algeria's position, the Polisario's letter brings nothing new», Dkhil continued. «It merely recycles old rhetoric, detached from today's geopolitical context». He noted that living conditions in the Tindouf camps have worsened and that ties between the Polisario leadership and its Algerian backers have cooled amid growing U.S. pressure on Algiers to help resolve the conflict, exemplified by U.S. envoy Steven Witkoff's recent remarks about a peace deal between Morocco and Algeria. According to Dkhil, Algeria now faces a choice: join the U.S.-led mediation effort or face the consequences of its support for the separatist group, which could include the Polisario's potential designation as a terrorist organization, a step already discussed in the U.S. Congress through a bipartisan bill introduced by Senator Joe Wilson and Representative Jimmy Panetta. In his November 6, 2024, speech marking the 49th anniversary of the Green March, King Mohammed VI reiterated Morocco's openness, inviting Algeria to join the Atlantic Initiative aimed at granting Sahel countries access to the ocean, describing it as «an endeavor intended to benefit all nations in the region».
