Al-Sharaa does not hand over the Algerian and Polisario combatants

The Algerian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Attaf, took advantage of his trip to Syria to transmit, on behalf of the Algerian president, a request for the release of Polisario detainees arrested by the Syrian group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa categorically rejected this request and asked Attaf to inform President Tebboune that “the 500 Algerian militia soldiers and those of the Polisario will be tried like the soldiers of the Assad regime”. 

These detainees were fighting in the ranks of Bashar Al-Assad's forces near Aleppo, and were arrested by the HTS in the attack they launched at the end of November, which led to the fall of the regime.

Al-Sharaa informed the Algerian Foreign Minister that a senior military commander with the rank of general and some 500 soldiers from the Algerian army and the Polisario militias would be tried together with the remaining captured Assad supporters.

He also emphasized that all detainees, whether from the Algerian army or Polisario, will be treated in accordance with international standards governing the treatment of prisoners of war. This decision caused uneasiness, which the Algerian Foreign Minister showed in his statements, which shows how sensitive relations between the two countries are.

Several press reports have spoken of the close ties between Iran and the Polisario Front, and of Tehran's support through Hezbollah, and in 2018, Morocco announced the severing of its relations with Iran due to this support for the Polisario Front, which seeks independence for Western Sahara.