RABAT (MOROCCO) (ITALPRESS) – “Despite numerous contracts awarded to Italian companies, particularly in the hydrocarbons and agriculture sectors, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has failed to convince Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to support the Polisario’s positions, particularly the ‘right of the Sahrawi people’ to self-determination.” This is according to an editorial published by Mohammed Jaabouk on the Moroccan website Yabiladi.
On Wednesday, July 23, the article notes, Rome hosted the intergovernmental summit between Italy and Algeria. At the end of the talks, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune delivered closing statements. “As is customary at these international meetings, the Algerian president expressed his satisfaction with the ‘perfect convergence’ of views between Rome and Algiers on numerous political issues”, Yabiladi’s article notes. Regarding Western Sahara, Tebboune stated that Italy ‘supports the efforts of the Personal Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General to reach a just political solution, in accordance with international law, that will allow the Saharawi people to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination’.
However, the joint statement published this Wednesday by the Italian government, at the end of the 5th session of the Italy-Algeria intergovernmental summit, offers a different perspective. In paragraph 29, the document specifies that the two parties ‘reaffirmed their support for the efforts of the Personal Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General, Staffan de Mistura, to relaunch direct negotiations and reach a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution, in accordance with the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and the relevant Security Council resolutions’. It therefore appears that ‘the self-determination of the Saharawi people’, as advocated by President Tebboune, is not mentioned in this Italo-Algerian joint statement”, the author of the article further observes.
“Furthermore, during her statement to the press, the Italian Prime Minister avoided the topic. Giorgia Meloni instead stated that she had discussed the crises in the Sahel and Libya with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune”, the author of the editorial continues. “As a reminder, Italy had already ‘welcomed Morocco’s serious and credible efforts’ to resolve the Sahara issue. In July 2023, following a meeting between Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and his Italian counterpart Antonio Tajani, Rome reaffirmed ‘its support for the efforts of the United Nations Secretary-General to pursue the political process aimed at achieving a just, realistic, pragmatic, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution to the Sahara issue, based on compromise, in accordance with Resolution 2654,’ adopted at the end of October 2022. A text that, it should be remembered, was rejected by Algeria”, the article continues. “Italy also wished to ‘encourage all parties to continue their commitment in a spirit of realism and compromise, within the framework of agreements consistent with the purposes and principles set forth in the United Nations Charter,'” the Moroccan website’s editorial concludes.
– photo Yabiladi –
(ITALPRESS).
