Despite the numerous contracts awarded to Italian companies, particularly in the hydrocarbons and agriculture sectors, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune failed to persuade Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to endorse the Polisario’s position, especially on «the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination».
The Polisario Front and its ally Algeria continue to cling to the 1974 Spanish census as the sole basis for holding a self-determination referendum in Western Sahara, overlooking the major shifts that have since occurred within the United Nations framework. For years, UN Security Council resolutions have made no reference to the settlement plan based on this census, instead calling for a realistic, practical, and mutually acceptable political solution. But what’s the story behind this
Could Algeria persuade the Polisario Front to soften its stance on the Western Sahara issue? That's the suggestion put forward by an American think tank closely aligned with Israel, yet sympathetic to Algeria’s interests in the United States.