MADRID, 9 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, and the Algerian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Attaf, have underlined this Wednesday their support for the UN efforts to try to resolve the Western Sahara conflict, in a meeting in Washington in which also dealt with other current international issues, such as the escalation of tensions in the Sahel.
Blinken has pointed out in a message on the X network, the former Twitter, that the situation in the Sahel or the war in Ukraine are part of the “common priorities” between the two countries. “We have also affirmed our full support for the UN political process for Western Sahara,” he added, alluding to the work carried out by envoy Staffan de Mistura.
The Algerian Foreign Ministry has also confirmed in a statement that “the latest events on the Saharawi question” have been part of the meeting’s agenda, with a view to De Mistura being able to relaunch the political process and that the two directly interested parties – -Morocco and the Polisario Front– sit down to negotiate “without prior conditions and in good faith.”
The Government of Algeria has also highlighted the “friendship” and “trust” that mark bilateral relations with the United States and the possibility of continuing to strengthen ties in the political and economic spheres, according to the note collected by the official news agency APS. Algeria will enter the United Nations Security Council early next year, where the United States has a permanent seat.
In the African sphere, Blinken and Attaf would have spoken of specific contexts such as those of Libya, Mali and Niger, the latter country the recent scene of a coup d’état. According to the Algerian government, Washington and Algiers are in favor of seeking “peaceful solutions” to the crises and “avoiding the region the risks of a military option”, despite the fact that this is ‘a priori’ on the table in the case of Niger following successive warnings from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
