Western Sahara : Algeria bets on a more prominent role for Russia

Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum phoned his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Thursday, and discussed the Western Sahara issue, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

This phone call is part of a campaign led by Algeria, after Morocco launched a military operation in the Sahara to secure the free flow of goods and people in the Guerguerate border crossing.

The talks with Russia’s Foreign Minister were preceded by a meeting on January 25 in Addis Ababa between the African Union Commission Commissioner for Peace and Security Smail Chergui and Russia’s Ambassador to Ethiopia Evgeny Terekhin. The territorial dispute was at the heart of talks between the two parties.

This week, Algerian Arabic-language magazine El Hiwar interviewed Moscow's ambassador to Algiers, Igor Beliaev. The latter was asked about the delay in appointing a new envoy to Western Sahara, the FAR operation in Guerguerate and the US recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara.

Sabri Boukadoum is personally responsible for raising the Sahara issue during his frequent phone calls with his counterpart Sergey Lavrov or Mikhael Bogdanov, Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and special representative of the President of the Russian Federation for the Middle East.