Gross manipulation of a senior US official's statements on his visit to Algiers

Joshua Harris arrived in Algiers on 6 December for a series of consultations with Algeria and Morocco aimed at resolving the long-standing conflict between the two countries, which has lasted almost half a century. He was received by Ahmed Attaf, Algerian Foreign Minister. Nothing more. Normally, minor officials are received with great pomp by the President of the Republic. It is true that the purpose of the US diplomat's visit seems to have unsettled Algerian officials. For the first time, the world's leading power, with which they welcome a significant rapprochement, is meddling in a matter that the Algerian regime considers vital to its survival.

This embarrassment was perfectly reflected in the silence surrounding the US diplomat's visit. Not a single media outlet said a word. Even the Foreign Ministry's website ignored the minister's meeting with the US special envoy. To cover up the media silence, the Algerian authorities presented Joshua Harris as the head of a website, "Algeria Now", unknown to the public and financed by two public bodies (the Agence Nationale de l'Edition et de la Publicité and the public mobile phone operator MOBILIS). The site publishes in Arabic and operates in total anonymity. It has no registered office, no commercial register and no known journalists. Nor does it have a telephone number or email address. Many Algerian journalists attribute the site to the intelligence services of the General Directorate of External Security.

While almost all Algeria's press, whether public or private sector, is at the beck and call of the intelligence services, it was an unknown news website that went to the US diplomat for an exclusive interview. And rightly so. The feat performed by the editor of this media outlet is one that no other of the most servile would have accepted. Total distortion of the words of the US special envoy. To the point of believing that it is the spokesman of the Polisario Front who is speaking. By way of example, this famous media outlet puts in the mouth of the American diplomat an enormity such as: "There is no shortcut to resolving the problem other than UN support for the Saharawi people's right to self-determination". Or this other example of misrepresentation: "For me, the permanent political solution is to allow the people of Western Sahara to make a proper decision about their future. Our policy is clear, and our position is clear with the Algerian government, that any initiative for a solution must come from the Saharawis themselves, because it concerns the Saharawi people".

Unfortunately for this media, which obtained an interview with a senior official of the US administration, the US Embassy in Algiers published the authentic version. A version in which there is no trace of referendum, Saharawi people or self-determination.

"The United States wants a lasting and dignified political solution in Western Sahara. We are seriously considering using our influence to enable a successful political process at the UN. A UN-facilitated resolution is long overdue. Previous UN envoys have tried many different avenues, but unfortunately so far these efforts have been unsuccessful." This passage, which does little to help the Algerian regime, has been omitted from the "Algeria Now" version. As has this other passage: "The United States views Morocco's autonomy proposal as serious, credible and realistic, and as a potential approach to meeting the aspirations of the people of Western Sahara".

However, the most telling part of Joshua Harris' interview with this enigmatic news site concerns the US warning to Algeria regarding the Polisario's recent attacks on civilian targets in Morocco, especially in the town of Smara. In this regard, he stated bluntly that "any attack on civilians is totally unacceptable. It is therefore more urgent than ever to set in motion a political process to prevent further escalation. The US is very focused on creating the conditions that will allow the political process to eventually lead to a movement".

What is striking about the US diplomat's statements is that at no point did he mention the Polisario. This means that, for the White House, the protagonists of the tension that threatens regional security are Morocco and Algeria. There is no place for any other party in the conflict. This is something the Algerian regime has always contested, even going so far as to consider breaking off diplomatic relations and closing external land and air borders over the Saharawi issue. A conflict that many Algerian opponents consider vital for the regime in Algiers.

At the beginning of the conflict in the mid-1970s, support for the Polisario was based on the cherished Algerian principle of the right of peoples to self-determination, but fifty years later much water has flowed under the bridge and the situation has changed completely. Among other things, the referendum on self-determination is considered obsolete. This referendum concerned 74,000 people in the former Spanish colony, whose names were fixed on a list drawn up by the colonial authorities at the time. 48 years later, not many of the 74,000 affected remain. The biological clock has run out for many of them and the war waged by the Polisario has swallowed up thousands more.

The other factor that rendered the referendum null and void is the intermingling of the region's populations and the many socio-economic and cultural achievements that have made Saguiet El Hamra and the Rio de Oro a real pole of development of which the Moroccan kingdom is proud.

At a time when Morocco was waging a full-scale war against underdevelopment and poverty in the region, the Polisario was paralysed by the withdrawal of support from an Algeria mired in a bloody civil war. Only with the arrival of Abdelmadjid Tebboune, "imposed by the generals of an army that robbed the people of the hirak that drove Bouteflika and his followers from power", did the Algerian regime rekindle tension between the two countries, to the point of breaking diplomatic relations and closing air borders. A badly elected president, with a consequent lack of popular legitimacy, supported by an army regularly denounced by a population demanding "a civilian and not a military state". This is what led the new leaders to see in the Algerian-Moroccan conflict the external danger that demanded the sacrosanct union between the people and the rulers against the foreign enemy. An external enemy to which the generals have added an internal enemy described as terrorist. Terrorism of a different kind. Opposition movements and independent personalities shouting from the rooftops what the people think because they are repressed and forbidden to express themselves freely.

According to many observers, the resolution of the Algerian-Moroccan conflict could be the trigger that the Algerian people have been waiting for so long to put an end to military rule and usher in the rule of law so long dreamed of by Algerians.