Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin on Wednesday received Algerian Ambassador Boumediene Guennad to discuss the settlement of the Western Sahara territorial dispute ahead of its upcoming discussion in the UN Security Council.
"Special attention was paid to the issue of the Western Sahara settlement in light of its upcoming consideration in the UN Security Council this month and the discussion of the activities of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara [MINURSO]," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement following the meeting.
In August 2021, Algeria severed diplomatic relations with Morocco over accusations of hostility, ties to two terrorist groups that Algiers considers accountable for starting forest fires, and alleged espionage on Algerian officials.
Western Sahara is a former colony of Spain that was transferred under the control of Morocco and Mauritania in 1975. A year later, the Polisario Front, a local nationalist movement, proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic on part of Western Sahara. A ceasefire was reached in the region in 1991, and the MINURSO mission was deployed with a peacekeeping mandate. Morocco considers Western Sahara its territory and controls roughly 80% of it, while Algeria advocates the region's self-determination and supports the Polisario Front, which controls the remaining 20%.