On Tuesday, Algeria announced that it is withdrawing its ambassador from France immediately following the French government’s recognition of Morocco’s autonomy plan as the sole basis for resolving the Western Sahara conflict.
In a statement, the Algerian Foreign Ministry declared, “The French government has unequivocally and explicitly supported the imposed colonial reality in the Western Sahara region.
This unprecedented move by the current French administration has been undertaken with great disregard and recklessness, without any prudent assessment of the resulting consequences.”
The statement emphasized that “by recognizing Morocco’s autonomy plan as the sole basis for resolving the Western Sahara dispute under the claimed Moroccan sovereignty, the French government is violating international legitimacy and denying the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination.
This contradicts the continuous and diligent efforts made by the United Nations to complete the decolonization process in Western Sahara, and it also renounces the special responsibilities associated with France’s permanent membership in the UN Security Council.”
As a result, “the Algerian government has decided to withdraw its ambassador from the French Republic with immediate effect. Henceforth, the diplomatic representation of Algeria in France will be managed by a chargé d’affaires,” the statement added.
Earlier today, the Moroccan Royal Palace announced that President Macron informed King Mohammed VI in a letter that “he considers the present and future of Western Sahara to be within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty,” and that the Moroccan autonomy plan “constitutes, from now on, the sole basis for reaching a fair, sustainable, and negotiated political solution, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions.”
Macron further stated, “For France, autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the framework within which this issue should be resolved,” affirming that France’s support for this plan is “clear and steadfast.”
