Algeria, South Africa Mobilize against African Resolution on Western Sahara Issue

Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum attends a meeting with foreign Ministers and officials from countries neighboring Libya to discuss the conflict in Libya, in Algiers, Algeria January 23, 2020. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina
Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum attends a meeting with foreign Ministers and officials from countries neighboring Libya to discuss the conflict in Libya, in Algiers, Algeria January 23, 2020. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina
TT
20

Algeria, South Africa Mobilize against African Resolution on Western Sahara Issue

Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum attends a meeting with foreign Ministers and officials from countries neighboring Libya to discuss the conflict in Libya, in Algiers, Algeria January 23, 2020. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina
Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum attends a meeting with foreign Ministers and officials from countries neighboring Libya to discuss the conflict in Libya, in Algiers, Algeria January 23, 2020. REUTERS/Ramzi Boudina

Algeria and South Africa are working in full swing to either scrap or amend resolution 693, which was adopted by the African Summit in Nouakchott in 2018, diplomatic sources told Asharq Al-Awsat.

A well-informed diplomatic source at the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa, who requested anonymity, reported that Algerian Foreign Minister Sabri Boukadoum had pushed for getting rid of the decision during his January 11 visit to Pretoria, South Africa.

Resolution 693 recognized that the Western Sahara issue is the exclusive responsibility of the United Nations. It established an African mechanism comprising the AU Troika, whose role is limited to “providing effective support to the efforts led by the UN.”

Other sources ruled out that South Africa and Algeria succeed in their endeavors noting that Cyril Ramaphosa, president of both the AU and South Africa, had caved under pressure he faced last December at the 14th extraordinary AU summit on Silencing the Guns in Africa.

Ramaphosa had no choice but to acknowledge the resolution’s validity.

Nevertheless, sources noted that official statements may be in contradiction with hidden intentions held by the South African leader.

South Africa’s permanent representative to the UN had sent a letter on December 29, 2020, to the UN Secretary-General, related to what he called “the decisions of the fourteenth extraordinary session of the Assembly of the African Union, on the theme “Silencing the Guns”, including a decision on the Western Sahara issue.”

The correspondence triggered a strong reaction from Morocco.

Morocco’s Permanent Representative to the UN Omar Hilale, for his part, sent a letter to the UN Secretary General and to the President and members of the Security Council, in which he denounced South Africa’s the maneuvers and misleading tactics about the Western Sahara issue.

In his letter, Hilale pointed out that the South African correspondence misleadingly suggests that the AU extraordinary summit on “Silencing the Guns” was exclusively dedicated to the Moroccan Sahara issue, while the reality is totally different.

The South African approach to singling out the Sahara issue reveals a double attempt, at the procedural and substantive levels, to mislead the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council, the Moroccan diplomat explained.

At the procedural level, the decision and declaration of the AU 14th extraordinary summit consist of 57 paragraphs, of which only one addresses the Sahara issue, he said, adding that the wording of this paragraph is declaratory in nature, and is in no way operational.

At the substantive level, Ambassador Hilale clarified that South Africa has knowingly ignored a set of issues discussed and included in the AU Extraordinary Summit’s decision and declaration such as the threats and conflicts that hamper the development of the African continent, and the bold policies and structural economic advances, such as the African Continental Free Trade Area.

South Africa’s unavowed goal is to focus the attention of the Secretary-General and the Security Council on one issue among the 40 or so topics raised during the AU Summit at the expense of the great concerns, expectations and hopes of the continent, the Moroccan diplomat outlined in his letter.



Israel Strikes Syria After Projectiles Fired, Holds Sharaa Responsible 

An Israeli military vehicle is seen near the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, May 4, 2025. (Reuters)
An Israeli military vehicle is seen near the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, May 4, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20

Israel Strikes Syria After Projectiles Fired, Holds Sharaa Responsible 

An Israeli military vehicle is seen near the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, May 4, 2025. (Reuters)
An Israeli military vehicle is seen near the border between the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and Syria, May 4, 2025. (Reuters)

Israel has carried out its first airstrikes in Syria in nearly a month, saying it hit weapons belonging to the government in retaliation for the firing of two projectiles towards Israel and holding interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa responsible. 

Damascus said Israeli strikes caused "heavy human and material losses", reiterating that Syria does not pose a threat to any regional party and stressing the need to end the presence of armed groups and establish state control in the south. 

Israel had not struck Syria since early May - a month marked by US President Donald Trump's meeting with Sharaa, the lifting of US sanctions, and direct Syrian-Israeli contacts to calm tensions, as reported by Reuters last week. 

Israel has bombed Syria frequently this year. Israel has also moved troops into areas of the southwest, where it has said it won't allow the new government's security forces to deploy. 

The projectiles Israel reported fired from Syria were the first since longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad was toppled. The Israeli military said the two projectiles fell in open areas. 

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he held the Syrian president "directly responsible for any threat and fire toward the State of Israel". 

A Syrian Foreign Ministry statement said the accuracy of the reports of shelling towards Israel had not yet been verified. 

"We believe that there are many parties that may seek to destabilize the region to achieve their own interests," the Syrian Foreign Ministry added, as reported by the state news agency. 

A Syrian official told Reuters such parties included "remnants of Assad-era militias linked to Iran, which have long been active in the Quneitra area" and have "a vested interest in provoking Israeli retaliation as a means of escalating tensions and undermining current stabilization efforts". 

Several Arab and Palestinian media outlets circulated a claim of responsibility from a little-known group named "Martyr Mohammed Deif Brigades," an apparent reference to Hamas' military leader who was killed in an Israeli strike in 2024. 

Reuters could not independently verify the statement. 

The Syrian state news agency and security sources reported Israeli strikes targeting sites in the Damascus countryside and Quneitra and Daraa provinces. 

Local residents contacted by Reuters said Israeli shelling targeted agricultural areas in the Wadi Yarmouk region. They described increased tensions in recent weeks, including reported Israeli incursions into villages, where residents have reportedly been barred from sowing their crops. 

An Israeli strike also hit a former Syrian army base near the city of Izraa, a Syrian source said. 

Israel has said its goals in Syria include protecting the Druze, a religious minority with followers in both countries. 

Israel, which has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since the 1967 Middle East war, bombed Syria frequently during the last decade of Assad's rule, targeting the sway of his Iranian allies. 

The newly-appointed US envoy to Syria said last week he believed peace between Syria and Israel was achievable. 

Around the same time that Israel reported the projectiles from Syria, the Israeli military said it intercepted a missile from Yemen. 

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said they targeted Israel's Jaffa with a ballistic missile. The group says it has been launching attacks against Israel in support of Palestinians during the Israeli war in Gaza.