The kingdom’s permanent representative to the UN, Omar Hilale, spoke last night during the 79th session of the organization’s General Assembly, to respond to passages in the intervention, a few hours earlier, of the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Attaf, reserved the question of the Sahara.
The Moroccan ambassador rejected outright all “Algerian allegations” on this issue. Nevertheless, he continued by bringing a new element to the traditional battles between Rabat and Algiers during international meetings. He openly accused Algeria of being “the mother of all problems in the Sahel and the Sahara.” The diplomat stressed that the eastern neighbor welcomes terrorists, extremists and separatists in the region. “They are taking refuge on Algerian territory,” insisted Omar Hilale.
The ambassador noted that in the Sahel “there is a terrorist threat, there is an extremist threat and there is a separatist threat but it is because of Algeria. Algeria’s borders are teeming with terrorists, extremists and separatists.
Algeria must respect the will of countries in the region
After his observation, Omar Hilale addressed “the remedy” to the problems of the Sahelo-Saharan zone which Ahmed Attaf did not provide in his speech, noted the Moroccan diplomat. Addressing the Algerians, he asked them to “stop your interference in the internal affairs of countries in the region. Respect the will of the countries of the region, your neighbors and respect the political choice of these countries. And to conclude his right of reply by inviting the Algerian authorities “to listen again to the speech of an eminent minister, delivered on Saturday from this rostrum, in which he outlined the situation of the diplomatic relations of the Sahel countries with Algeria “.
Ambassador Hilale refers to the intervention of the Malian Minister of State, Colonel Abdoulaye Maïga, at the UN General Assembly. The official accused Algiers of offering “room and board to terrorists and renegades on the loose.”
“We see serious interference in the internal affairs of Mali. Since the end of the Algiers Agreement on January 25, 2024, Mali has expressed only one wish concerning itself, that its soul rest in peace. For every bullet fired against us, we will react with reciprocity, for every word used wrongly, we will react with reciprocity,” he warned.
On the sidelines of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, Nasser Bourita held talks with his Malian counterpart, Abdoulay Diop. The head of Moroccan diplomacy also met in New York with his counterparts from the Sahel States (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad), who joined, on December 23, 2023 in Marrakech, the initiative launched on December 6, 2023. November, by King Mohammed VI to facilitate access of these countries to the Atlantic Ocean.
