The Algeria-backed Polisario Front is in open panic ahead of a decisive UN Security Council vote, launching a desperate attack on UN Personal Envoy Staffan de Mistura while its Algerian sponsors scramble with contradictory statements, mass arrests of Moroccans, and frantic propaganda.
In a statement released Monday in New York, Polisario leader Brahim Ghali accused de Mistura of “lack of neutrality” and “public alignment with Morocco’s positions” after the envoy’s closed-door briefing to the Security Council on October 8.
The separatists threatened to “reconsider their engagement” with the UN mediator, claiming his support for autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty as the basis for future talks raises doubts.
The charge is as baseless as it is revealing. Far from being Morocco’s man, de Mistura has long drawn skepticism in Rabat.
In 2024 he revived the outdated idea of partitioning the Sahara — a proposal Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita immediately dismissed as “warmed-over” — and his visit to Pretoria, a vocal Polisario ally, irritated Moroccan authorities. Yet now the same envoy is painted as Rabat’s instrument. The contradiction is glaring.
After three rounds of talks in Washington and Madrid, negotiations have hit a wall because the Polisario refuses to seriously examine Morocco’s autonomy plan.
For the first time, the UN mediator openly identified the party blocking progress.
Since Resolution 2797 a year ago established autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty as the framework, de Mistura is simply applying the Council’s own parameters.
By attacking him, the Polisario is attacking the Security Council itself and the international consensus that has already decided the matter.
Algeria’s regime is equally unnerved. On October 3, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune told Algerian television that his country would not be “more Sahrawi than the Sahrawis” and that Resolution 2797 “is making its way” — classic language preparing domestic opinion for retreat.
The Security Council is expected to adopt a new resolution by the end of October. Neither the Polisario nor Algiers expects it to reverse course. Unable to change the text, they attack the referee, dramatize, and invent conspiracies.