A subtle but significant shift in Algeria’s position on the Western Sahara dispute is emerging, as Algeria finds itself increasingly isolated on the issue following the erosion of support from key allies — and Washington is moving quickly to exploit the opening.
US Presidential Advisor for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos met recently with Algeria’s Ambassador to Washington, Sabri Boukadoum, pressing Algiers to play a more constructive role in the United Nations-backed peace process. In a statement posted on X, Boulos praised Algeria’s “constructive engagement” while making clear that Washington believed it was “time to reach a resolution,” pointing to UN Security Council Resolution 2797, which endorses Morocco’s autonomy plan as the most credible path to a settlement.
The signal from Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune that Resolution 2797 “is making its way” — and his notable refusal to directly criticise Morocco’s autonomy proposal — has been read by analysts as the clearest indication yet that Algiers may be inching away from its long-held position of unconditional support for full Sahrawi independence.
That position has been sustained for decades through Algeria’s backing of the Polisario Front, the armed movement that administers refugee camps in Tindouf and champions the cause of an independent Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The SADR, though recognised by around 46 UN member states and admitted to the African Union, has struggled to translate that diplomatic support into tangible progress toward statehood. Morocco, by contrast, controls the vast majority of the territory and has steadily accumulated international backing for its autonomy framework.
The geopolitical ground beneath Algeria has been shifting for some time. Morocco’s autonomy plan has gathered momentum across major Western capitals. The United States set the tone in 2020 when President Donald Trump formally recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara as part of a deal bringing Rabat into the Abraham Accords. Spain followed in 2022, and France has since aligned with that position, with President Emmanuel Macron describing the autonomy plan as the “only basis” for a lasting settlement. Algeria responded furiously to Paris’s stance, recalling its ambassador from France and refusing to accept Algerian nationals deported from French territory — a rupture that further strained Algiers’ relationships with the West.
More damaging still for Algeria has been the wavering of Russia, historically one of its closest strategic partners. In a 2025 briefing, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested Moscow could support Morocco’s autonomy plan under the right conditions, saying: “If it is acceptable to everyone, it is acceptable to us as well.” The statement stopped short of an outright endorsement but represented a significant departure from the unequivocal backing Algeria had previously relied upon from Moscow.
The diplomatic pressure has been compounded by a deterioration in security on the ground. On 5 May 2026, the Polisario Front launched a rocket attack on Es-Smara, a city in Morocco’s south, with the strike landing near a civilian area and a prison and injuring one person. The attack drew condemnation from the United Nations, the European Union and Western governments including the United States, further undermining the Polisario’s international standing and handing Morocco a political advantage at a critical moment.
UN Personal Envoy for Western Sahara Staffan de Mistura responded by urging a return to the negotiating table, warning that sustained conflict threatened to derail years of diplomatic effort to bring the parties closer together.
The dispute also carries significant economic dimensions that add to the stakes. Western Sahara holds some of the world’s most substantial phosphate reserves, centred on the Bou Craa mine, a resource of considerable strategic value for global fertiliser production and one that Morocco’s control of the territory gives it direct access to.
Relations between Morocco and Algeria have been severed since 2021, when Algiers cut diplomatic ties in a sharp escalation of a rivalry that President Tebboune himself described in 2023 as having reached “the point of no return.” Against that backdrop, any movement in Algeria’s official position — however cautious — represents a development that Washington, Rabat and the UN are unlikely to let pass without pressing their advantage.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah