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"Polisario", a "real time bomb" in Algeria.

"Polisario", a "real time bomb" in Algeria.

"The separatist movement of the 'Polisario' is a 'real time bomb' for Algeria," said political analyst Mustapha Tossa estimating that for decades, this 'losing cause' has absorbed a large part of the Algerian economy.

"From costly, regular, and useless weaponry, to a budget-devouring diplomatic apparatus exclusively serving the Polisario, to suitcases filled with dollars destined to buy support and sympathy in Africa and elsewhere and to fuel lobbying networks. All Algerian wealth is poured into this losing, stillborn battle," notes Mr. Tossa in an article published on the "hespress" news website titled "The Polisario, an Algerian bomb!".

The worst part is that the "Polisario" is not even an issue for the Algerian population, as the average citizen is indifferent to this artificial territorial dispute, he observes.

According to the political analyst, the "Polisario" is just a "simple security dossier" within the Algerian military institution, which uses it as a card to "try to weaken Morocco, undermine its development process, and create the illusion of an external enemy."

"The Polisario is so important in the eyes of the Algerian regime that career advancements depend on public support for it," notes the author, adding that the separatist movement "drains the Algerian economy, shapes the identity of its political class, monopolizes its international concerns, and forces it into malevolent and unprofitable alliances for the Algerian people, such as the emerging architecture with the Iranian regime and antagonism with neighboring Europe."

The "Polisario" also causes a "hemorrhage and loss" of Algeria's wealth to such an extent that the regime in power risks leaving the Algerian citizen wanting for everything, as evidenced by the "shameful queues to obtain basic necessities to keep politics out of the military and diplomatic bottleneck," argues Mr. Tossa, for whom the separatist movement also represents a "real time bomb" for Algeria.

"The option of autonomy is being validated by all international forums, drastically isolating Algeria in its separatist vision. Unless it locks itself in perpetual political autism that will eventually lead to its demise, the Algerian regime is obliged to provide therapy that is acceptable to the international community for the armed militias of the Polisario present on its territory," notes the political scientist, who wonders how the Algerian regime will behave with the "Polisario" issue once the separatist adventure is definitively ended.

"How can the militias be disarmed without risking the outbreak of an Algerian civil war that would make the 'black decade' of the 1990s seem like a minor discord? And how can they be integrated into the army without risking poisoning the entire security architecture of the country?" asks the author, arguing that the closer Morocco gets to the diplomatic deadline to definitively close this regional crisis, the more "Algeria seems destined for an explosion of contradictions, which would force it to make painful and structuring choices for its future and that of the entire region."

"Is it possible to easily and without consequences, effortlessly and without dramas, smother a monster and an illusion that has been fed for decades with arms and false hopes? The stability and security of Algerians depend on the answer to these questions," concludes Mr. Tossa.

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