The phenomenon of recruitment of child soldiers by the polisario under the supervision of the Algerian Army, so denounced by international organizations including the UN, has been invited to the European Parliament through a question –with request for written reply-addressed by a group of MEPs to the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Joseph Borrell.
In late 2020, the US legally recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara, and affirmed that the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative is the only basis for a realistic, serious and credible solution to the regional dispute over the territory. Since its completion, critics of the US recognition have come out in full force: Some have said that this decision tramples on the rights of the Sahrawi people who live in Western Sahara, and they’ve called for the Biden administration to undo it.
In 15 March, the New Zealand High Court of Justice issued its decision following legal action initiated last year by two members of the Polisario separatist movement.
Polisario's target was the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZSF), a sovereign wealth fund which is a kind of pension fund and which has invested in recent years in fertiliser production activities using phosphate from the Moroccan Sahara.
Journalist and publisher Mohamed Berrada affirmed that everyone is painfully watching the political and media derailment in Algeria.
For more than two decades, the United States has seen the politics of the Middle East as a tug of war between moderation and radicalism—Arabs against Iran. But for the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency, it was blind to different, more profound fissures growing among the region’s three non-Arab powers: Iran, Israel, and Turkey.
John Bolton claims to know well the issue of Western Sahara. He was a close collaborator of James Baker, former Personal Envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations. What always struck me in these two personalities, as well as in their fellow countryman Christopher Ross, former Personal Envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations, is their ability to evade the fundamental role of Algeria in what is called the issue of Western Sahara.
It is estimated that the gross world product (GWP) will decline over 6% in 2020 from 2019, reducing growth by trillions of dollars, mainly due to the pandemic. This is going to have a devastating effect on countries with weak economies and low incomes, as well as those wholly dependent on oil revenue, two key categories which define Morocco on the one hand and Algeria on the other.
