The image is almost pathetic: Ahmed Attaf, a human shield for a regime in Algiers adrift, is trying to sell his country's public yet another utterly implausible idea. Just as the international community is aligning itself with Morocco's autonomy plan, the neighboring power is attempting to masquerade as a peacemaker, proposing mediation between Morocco and the Polisario Front, while denying its own role in a conflict it has fueled and financed for fifty years. A desperate about-face, dictated not by morality but by defeat.

In Algiers on Tuesday, Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf proposed that his country play a mediating role between Morocco and the Polisario Front regarding the Western Sahara. He made this proposal during a press conference, speaking directly to the cameras. This surprising, even shocking, initiative comes from a country that has presented itself for nearly half a century as an unconditional supporter of the Polisario Front and Morocco's main adversary on this issue. This diplomatic twist follows the adoption by the UN Security Council of Resolution 2797, a resolution that marks a historic step forward for Morocco's autonomy plan and a serious setback for Algeria's strategy.

Far from reflecting a concern for de-escalation or a genuine desire for peace, Algeria's mediation proposal resembles a maneuver to mask a blatant diplomatic failure, while subtly preparing Algerian public opinion for their country's participation in the upcoming negotiations, based on the autonomy plan for the Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty. This participation is explicitly demanded by the Security Council, and Algeria is attempting to cloak it in the guise of neutrality. But history and UN resolutions speak for themselves: Algeria is a party to the conflict. Ahmed Attaf, the foreign minister of a Security Council member state, seems to feign ignorance of both the letter and the spirit of this resolution. Worse still, he has rewritten it.

Ahmed Attaf's Pathological Denial

Speaking to the press, Ahmed Attaf gave a lengthy speech on Resolution 2797, shamelessly asserting that the Security Council had neither accepted Morocco's position nor recognized Morocco's alleged sovereignty over Western Sahara. He insisted that the Council had not ruled on the basis of the negotiations, nor on their outcome, and that the final solution must guarantee the self-determination of the Sahrawi people.

Notably, while the statement by the presumed head of neighboring diplomacy made headlines across all Algerian media outlets, which reprinted his remarks in full with extensive excerpts and voiceovers, no filmed statement by Attaf on the subject had been broadcast, either on television or online, at the time of publication. This was a clear indication, if any were needed, of the half-hearted nature of his stance, adopted at best as a trial balloon, at worst as a last-ditch act of desperation. It wasn't until the end of the day that the regime's official news agency, APS, provided us with a censored version in which the mediation proposal had been omitted, and that Ahmed Attaf's department released an edited video of his statement on its YouTube channel (see video from minute 25:00).

▶️ السيد #عطاف : #مجلس_الأمن لم يعتمد الأطروحات Algérie Presse Service وكالة الأنباء الجزائرية (@Algerie_aps) November 18, 2025

And for good reason, these statements are not only misleading, but they directly contradict the very text of the resolution that the minister claims to be interpreting.

The text, adopted by 11 votes in favor (none against, with only three countries abstaining and Algeria choosing to remain empty-chaired by refusing to participate in the vote), clearly states: The Council fully supports efforts (…) to facilitate and conduct negotiations based on the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco in order to reach a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable settlement […] Paragraph 3, which Attaf quotes extensively, specifies that genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty could be one of the most realistic solutions.

How then can we understand Ahmed Attaf's public denial of the presence of the word"sovereignty" in the resolution, only to later claim he had proposed its removal? Or his repeated assertions that Resolution 2797 urges the two parties to the conflict—terminology that appears nowhere in the resolution—while denying that it actually mentions all parties, specifically naming Morocco, the Polisario Front, Algeria, and Mauritania? How can the Algerian Foreign Minister lie so brazenly by claiming that the Security Council calls on the two parties to the conflict, the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front, to engage in negotiations, when Algeria is mentioned as many times as the Polisario Front in the text of the resolution? The Polisario Front is mentioned only once in Resolution 2797. And so is Algeria. The Kingdom of Morocco is mentioned five times. This establishes the complete preeminence of Morocco's perspective and proposed solution.

Contrary to Mr. Attaf's lies, resolution 2797 never mentions two parties.

This is no longer a matter of diplomacy, but of a pure and simple rewriting of the facts, a deliberate distortion aimed at preserving a seriously shaken political façade.

The headlong rush

Already on November 2, the day after the resolution was adopted thanks to broad international support, Ahmed Attaf spoke on AL24 News, President Tebboune's official communications outlet. His remarks were marked by an uncertain demeanor and repeated falsehoods. In a state of denial, the Algerian Foreign Minister claimed that the UN text contained no reference to the Moroccan autonomy plan as a basis for a solution, going so far as to accuse Morocco of having tried to dismantle MINURSO, even though it is the mission's donors, exasperated by the impasse, who are threatening to redefine its mandate.

This double standard, distorting both the facts and UN resolutions, is not insignificant. It is an attempt to legitimize, in the eyes of a public long conditioned by propaganda, the new diplomatic stance imposed by circumstances. Having refused to vote for the resolution, as it did last year, Algeria is seeking to gain a foothold in a negotiated process that it can no longer obstruct.

For decades, Algerian diplomacy has pretended to be merely a concerned observer or a neighboring country in the dispute surrounding the Sahara. Yet, it is now designated as a party by the UN itself, explicitly in the text of Resolution 2797. What, then, does this offer of mediation mean from a country that still officially denies any responsibility? An attempt at political realignment imposed by the international balance of power, in which Algeria is now isolated.

The recent diplomatic crisis with Spain, triggered by Madrid's support for Morocco's autonomy plan, and the crisis with Paris, where Algiers tried in vain to present itself as an uncompromising power, have only served to highlight the strategic isolation of a regime plagued by its own contradictions. The Boualem Sansal affair cruelly revealed this: the Algerian authorities bowed in a matter of hours to an urgent demand from Berlin, releasing a writer imprisoned simply for pointing out that a large part of eastern Morocco was annexed to Algeria by French colonization. This hasty decision demonstrated the fragility of a regime that, beneath its veneer of strength, acts primarily out of fear.

A regime on the brink of collapse

Further proof that Algeria's stance is ultimately just a bluff: its proxy, the Polisario Front, was waving a memorandum to the UN just yesterday, Monday, vehemently criticizing Resolution 2797, describing a process of bureaucratic inertia, and accusing the UN of managing the conflict rather than resolving it. Ironically, or perhaps due to a miscalculation by the Algerian regime, while it tries to smooth things over and conceal the failure of its diplomacy, its own protégé rejects the resolution without hesitation. The Algerian government now finds itself forced to contend with the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Morocco over Western Sahara, which it fought against for half a century, all while watching its offspring crumble.

Meanwhile, international support for the autonomy plan continues to grow: the United States, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and recently Russia, focused on its own geopolitical priorities and weary of a dishonorable regime. Faced with this tidal wave of support, voices are even being raised in Algeria demanding accountability for the hundreds of billions of dollars squandered on a distant conflict, instead of serving an impoverished population facing shortages, endemic unemployment, and the perilous prospect of emigrating to Europe. President Tebboune himself acknowledged last July that a fortune had been squandered on the Polisario Front.

Ahmed Attaf’s initiative, under the guise of regional neutrality, is therefore less a signal of peace than a desperate attempt to make his forced participation in the roundtables more palatable to public opinion. Faced with growing international isolation, repeated setbacks in its relations with key partners like Spain and France, and pressure from Germany via the Sansal affair, the Algerian regime is seeking to redefine its role without losing face. The problem is that its narrative is no longer convincing, either abroad or at home.

Now forced to accept its role as a party to the conflict and participate in a negotiation process based on the Moroccan autonomy plan, the Algerian regime has nothing left but rhetoric to try and mask a defeat it knows is irreparable. Its belated and clumsy attempt to present itself as a mediator is probably one of its last maneuvers before a political surrender imposed by circumstances.