Ahmad 
Algeria announced on Tuesday the immediate withdrawal of its ambassador from France, in an escalation against the backdrop of the French authorities’ recognition of the Moroccan autonomy plan as the only solution to the Western Sahara conflict.
A statement from the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “The French government has declared its absolute and explicit support for the colonial reality imposed on the Western Sahara region. This step, which no previous French government has taken, has been taken by the current government with great disdain and indifference without any insightful assessment of the consequences that result from it.”
The statement added: “By recognizing the Moroccan autonomy plan as the sole basis for resolving the Western Sahara conflict within the framework of alleged Moroccan sovereignty, the French government is violating international legitimacy and denying the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination, and contradicting all efforts made by the United Nations to end colonialism in Western Sahara. It is also evading its responsibilities as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.”
The statement indicated that the Algerian government has decided to withdraw its ambassador to France immediately, with a chargé d’affaires taking over the Algerian diplomatic representation in France.
In a previous development, the Moroccan Royal Court announced that French President Emmanuel Macron informed King Mohammed VI in a letter that “the present and future of Western Sahara fall within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty,” and that the autonomy plan presented by Morocco “constitutes, from now on, the only basis for reaching a political, just, sustainable, and negotiated solution, in accordance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council.”
Macron stressed in his letter that “autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the framework through which this issue must be resolved,” stressing that France’s support for this plan is “clear and firm.”
This development reflects the escalation of diplomatic tensions between Algeria and France and could have repercussions on relations between the two countries and on international and regional policy related to the Western Sahara conflict.
Haftar discusses with the French ambassador to Libya developments in the political process