Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07ALGIERS1550
2007-10-23 17:16:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Algiers
Cable title:  

ALGERIANS GRUMP AT U.S. DRAFT WESTERN SAHARA TEXT

Tags:  AG PREL UNSC WI 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0001
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAS #1550 2961716
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 231716Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY ALGIERS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4727
INFO RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0469
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1736
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 8653
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 2375
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT 1977
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 6831
C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 001550 

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2017
TAGS: AG PREL UNSC WI
SUBJECT: ALGERIANS GRUMP AT U.S. DRAFT WESTERN SAHARA TEXT

REF: STATE 146853

Classified By: Ambassador Robert Ford, reason 1.5 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L ALGIERS 001550

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SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/23/2017
TAGS: AG PREL UNSC WI
SUBJECT: ALGERIANS GRUMP AT U.S. DRAFT WESTERN SAHARA TEXT

REF: STATE 146853

Classified By: Ambassador Robert Ford, reason 1.5 (b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: Algerian MFA summoned Ambassador on the
afternoon of October 23 to receive a blunt message that
paragraph 7 of the draft U.S. text on the MINURSO renewal
resolution was "unacceptable," "unbalanced," and "unhelpful."
Ambassador responded that describing the Moroccan plan as a
serious basis for negotiations was pragmatic, and that the
resolution should aim to help move the slow-moving
negotiations forward in a realistic way. The GOA message
also stated Algerian "shock" that the U.S. would support such
a position, in what it considered to be a violation of the
principle of self-determination. We should provide the GoA
with a more formal response as they requested. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) Ambassador and PolEc met with MFA Director General for
Multilateral Affairs, a.i., Rachid Bladehane, the afternoon
of October 23. Bladehane had a full readout of the October
22 meeting in New York, and a terse demarche to deliver to
the Ambassador concerning GOA indignance at OP 7 of the draft
resolution text. (He raised no other points in the U.S.
draft text.) Bladehane called paragraph PP7 unacceptable,
unbalanced and unhelpful. He claimed keeping the U.S.
language would undermine the efforts of UN Special Envoy van
Walsum. Bladehane stated that the Polisario would never
accept to negotiate only the Moroccan proposal, and that both
sides should have their proposals given equal time. (He and
his aide referred several times to the lastest UNSG report
that, they claimed, gave Morocco and the Polisario positions
equal weight.) When Bladehane pointed out that the Moroccans
had not even agreed to a date for the next round of
negotiations, the Ambassador asked if the Polisario had done
so. Bladehane, flustered, replied that he would have to
check but that "the Polisario had agreed in principle."


3. (C) Bladehane went on to express that the GOA was
"surprised" the U.S. would "change its position" in this way,
and said that it would like to understand the American
reasoning. Ambassador said he would try to secure a more
formal response but observed that the U.S. position was
pragmatic. The U.S. welcomed direct negotiations but we also
sought negotiations that would lead to a realistic solution,
he noted. The Moroccans had put a detailed plan on the
table, and the Polisario had not. Moreover, the Moroccans
had made clear that the Baker Plan was not acceptable and
Polisario insistence on a plan like Baker would simply cause
the nascent negotiation process to break down. Already the
two sides were deadlocked over an agenda. Ambassador asked
the Algerian if Algiers had any new ideas to help the two
sides overcome their immediate deadlock. Bladehane responded
by stressing that the Polisario and GOA put their faith in
the UN process of decolonization, urging that this process be
given time. Some decolonization processes, Bladehane said,
"took a century to resolve."


4. (C) Comment: By Algerian standards, this was not a
particularly harsh demarche. A Director General (Assistant
Secretary equivalent) delivered it verbatim and its tone was

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more hurt than angry. Getting the Algerians to drop talk of
resisting Moroccan "occupation" of the Western Sahara for a
century and instead to focus on a more realistic solution
will take some time. As we have reported previously, there
are some realistic thinkers in the GoA but other officials,
including top leaders, are stuck on an ideology of national
liberation. Those so stuck won't be convinced otherwise
quickly, and they won't be convinced without blunt talk from
members of the Friends Group about how support for the
Polisario in the UNSC whether this year or later will erode
eventually.


FORD