Morocco's permanent representative to the United Nations revealed the exact number of amendments Algeria submitted to the U.S. draft resolution on the Sahara. «Out of the 44 paragraphs in the text, Algeria proposed 23 amendments. This is unprecedented. Never before has a Security Council member acted in this manner», noted Omar Hilale in an interview with national TV channel 2M.
«They specifically aimed to remove any mention of Algeria as a party and eliminate the roundtable discussions, the main pillar of the political process. They also sought to extend MINURSO's mandate to include human rights monitoring and pushed for a visit to the Sahara by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights», explained the diplomat.
«We succeeded in blocking these proposals. The Algerian ambassador even admitted in his speech to Moroccan pressure in key capitals», Hilale added.
Notably, on October 31, Algeria abstained from voting on Security Council Resolution 2756, which extended the MINURSO mission in the Sahara for another year.