Algeria Keeps Arming Polisario Despite Calls to Label Group as Terrorists
Rabat – Algeria continues to supply the Polisario Front with military equipment, including drones, amid international appeals calling to designate the separatist group as a terrorist militia.
Oualid Kebir, an Algerian political analyst, recently said that the Algerian regime delivered four Fajr-54 combat drones to the Polisario.
Kebir announced the news on X last week, where he detailed that training sessions also took place at the Boulaadham Air Base in the third military region near Bechar and Tindouf.
Notably, Kebir recalled that despite Algeria's socio-economic crisis and social unrest, the regime continues to support the Polisario Front and its maneuvers targeting Morocco's territorial integrity.
'But the scandal goes deeper than just arming an armed group. These drones… are Chinese-made UAVs that were previously assembled under a murky Algerian-Emirati partnership- a project that ended in disgrace,' Kebir said.
He said that the fallout led to the arrest of General Abdelhamid Ghriss, the former Secretary General of the Algerian Ministry of Defense.
'[The Algerian army official] is now imprisoned on serious corruption charges about this drone program,' Kebir said.
'These drones, which are linked to a corruption case, are now in the hands of an armed militia,' Kebir concluded.
The drones delivered to the separatist group come amid growing concerns about Polisario's involvement in war crimes. Several reports have evidenced that the Polisario Front sent its militias to Syria, interfering in the country's internal affairs.
'Over the years, Iran has fostered a wide array of proxy groups to advance its interests,' The Washington Post reported this month, quoting a regional official and a third European official who said Iran trained fighters from the Algeria-based Polisario Front that are now detained by Syria's new security forces.
Among the series of revelations that emerged is a document marked as 'highly confidential,' outlining secret alliances between the fallen Syrian regime and the separatist group.
The confidential document was an official correspondence from the Syrian government led by ousted president Bashar al-Assad, dating back to January 2012.
Polisario members sent militias to undergo military training with the Syrian Arab army, according to the document, which also details a series of communications between Algeria's Ministry of Defense, Syria's Ministry of Defense, and Polisario's leadership, culminating in an agreement for combat training involving 120 Polisario members.
The separatist group members were to be divided into four groups, the document detailed, revealing that senior members of the Polisario leadership also traveled to Beirut in December 2011 for consultations with Hezbollah to coordinate on military training missions in 'special operations' in Syria.
Among other factors, these details have prompted increasing concerns and calls for the international community to designate the Polisario Front as a terrorist group.
The latest appeal came from French politician Pierre Henri Dumont, who demanded that France label the separatist group as a terrorist group.
'[Polisario] It threatens the peace and security of the region,' he said, concluding that the French government 'must designate it for what it is: a terrorist organization,' the politician said.
The same appeal was echoed by Republican Congressman Joe Wilson, who said he will introduce legislation to designate the Polisario as terrorists.
Liam Fox, former Secretary of State for Defense in the UK, made a similar appeal, saying: 'Like Hamas and Hezbollah, the Polisario Front is an Iranian proxy organisation. For the sake of our Moroccan allies, Western governments must move quickly to designate this group as a terrorist organization.' Tags: Algeria and polisarioPolisario and Algeria
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