After 20 years’ absence from the UN Security Council, Algeria has become a member. It will attempt to defend the interests of the Polisario Front in the Sahara conflict, and even to influence other countries such as France, which will heighten tensions in Morocco-Algerian relations.
Last Tuesday, the 193 members of the General Assembly elected five new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for the years 2024 and 2025, including Algeria and Sierra Leone, from the African continent.
This is the fourth time that Algeria has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Security Council, having been elected for the first time in 1968-1969, then in 1988-1989, and most recently in 2004-2005. -2005.
Algeria’s return to the Security Council coincides with the Maghreb country’s desire to reposition its international presence after a period of inactivity during the last years of the era of the late President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
Algeria is trying to play an active role in the African Union, reducing the influence of the West in favour of the BRICS group, mainly China and Russia. It also wants to play a role in the Arab League and the Arab-Iranian dialogue. The main issue on Algeria’s agenda remains the Sahara conflict, as it wishes to give a strong impetus to this issue and will find the Security Council the ideal opportunity to support the Polisario Front.
For this reason, the Polisario enthusiastically welcomed Algeria’s entry into the Security Council. The Polisario Front’s head of external relations, Mohamed Sidati, said that Algeria would be the voice defending the Polisario’s position on the Sahara conflict within the UN Security Council.
Algeria will try to exert its influence on certain countries on the Council, in particular France, which was historically the biggest defender of Morocco’s interests in the Security Council on the Sahara issue, before the current thorny crisis between Paris and Rabat erupted. Algeria is putting pressure on Paris not to support Morocco on the Sahara issue.
Algeria’s entry into the Security Council and the expected presentation of numerous initiatives on the Sahara to the Security Council would increase tension in Moroccan-Algerian relations. There have been no diplomatic relations between the two countries for two years, and the situation almost turned into a military confrontation.