Algiers, 15 September 2023 (SPS) – Algerian minister of foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad, Ahmed Attaf, received Wednesday the UN General Secretary’s personal envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, who is on a working visit to Algeria, the ministry said in a statement.
Attaf reiterated “Algeria’s total support” of the efforts of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and his personal envoy, Staffan de Mistura, expressing his wish that those efforts lead to the revival of direct negotiations between the two parties to the conflict, namely the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front, “without pre-conditions and in good faith, to find a political solution preserving Western Sahara people’s right to self-determination,” the statement said.
The minister welcomed the “unchanged position of the Security Council, which considers Western Sahara conflict as a decolonisation issue that should be settled through one of the pillars of the UN system, namely the right of peoples to self-determination.”
The visit is part of a trip by the UN chief’s personal envoy to the region, which began early September.
De Mistura had earlier visited the occupied Western Sahara territories, then held consultations with the two parties to the conflict, namely the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front.
Following his visit to Algeria, the UN diplomat will go to Mauritania, the two countries being observer countries in the UN-sponsored process.