Argelia involucra a Egipto y Libia en el expediente saharaui
Algeria is looking for support to sustain one of the most controversial issues of its foreign policy. The Western Sahara issue, the main reason for its historic rivalry with Morocco, requires new allies in the face of the growing number of countries that agree with the proposal for autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara. To this end, Algeria is trying to bring Egypt and Libya closer together, or at least that is how observers see the latest meeting held between these three, with the presence of the Polisario Front. The meeting was part of the eleventh meeting of the Committee of Chiefs of Staff and the tenth meeting of the Council of Defence Ministers of the member states of the North African Region Capability (NARC) organisation.
The meeting brought together the Chief of Staff of the Algerian Army, Lieutenant General Said Chengriha, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces, Major General Essam El-Gamal, the Chief of the General Staff of the Libyan Government of National Unity, Lieutenant General Muhammad Ali Al-Haddad, and the Chief of Staff of the Polisario Front, Muhammad Al-Wali Akik. The main idea of the meeting was to address issues of regional cooperation in the fight against terrorism, as well as conflict resolution and peace-building processes. However, it was the Mauritanian and Tunisian absences that caught the attention of observers.
The NARC, established in 2005 and affiliated with the African Union, is composed of the three countries in attendance, the Polisario Front, and the aforementioned absentees. Nabil Al-Andalusi, head of the Maghreb Centre for Research and Strategic Studies, believes that the Algerians have failed to persuade Tunisia and Mauritania, which could be closely related to both countries' relationship with Rabat. Nouakchott is going through a period of significant improvement in its ties with the Alawi kingdom, and it has no plans to jeopardise this development.
The situation is similar to that of the Tunisians who, after the diplomatic crisis of August last year, have no intention of tightening their ties with Morocco. Tunisia hosted Polisario leader Brahim Ghali to take part in the African-Japanese summit, which led to the immediate recall of the Moroccan ambassador to Tunis for consultations and the Kingdom's withdrawal from the summit. The Alawite foreign minister, Nasser Bourita, said that "Morocco's position on the serious and unacceptable reception of the head of the Tunisian state by the head of the separatist militia has not changed". Those of Kais Saied issued a statement asserting their support for "total neutrality on the question of Western Sahara in respect of international legality", and defending a "peaceful solution acceptable to all".
In view of these two absences, some have questioned Egypt's attendance. A year ago, Nasser Bourita and his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry issued a joint communiqué after meeting in Rabat, stating that Cairo "supports the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Morocco and welcomes the serious and credible Moroccan policy". Hence its presence is, a priori, controversial. However, the Egyptian context is more complex, as Major General Nasr Salem, former head of the Egyptian army's reconnaissance apparatus and professor of strategic sciences at the Nasser Higher Military Academy, explained to Al Arab, saying that "it is part of its security role on the African continent after it took over the co-chairmanship of the work of the Global Counterterrorism Forum".