AL-Mustaqilla

(farah.adnanral@yahoo.com) By Farah Adnan Baghdad: Since the announcement of the Iraqi prime minister, the general commander of the armed forces, Haider al-Abadi, 17 this month, starting edit city of Mosul operations, the last bastion of the organization ISIS terrorist, led by the Iraqi army and the participation of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the attribution of Alhashed Alshaaby and Alaashary, as well as the attribution of aircraft of international coalition forces, regional and international community and the Iraqi street and its different components in full alert to monitor the ongoing battle events, to get rid of the terrorist organization, which will end in Mosul, as promised to the Iraqi prime minister, in particular, that the joint Iraqi forces have achieved to date, according to observers of field developments, significant progress in a short time, with a significant decline of the elements of the organization, let alone monitor and the assignment of the victims of terrori...

 Frente POLISARIO delegation headed by Minister Delegate to European Union, Mr. Mohamed Sidati participated on the second congress of Syriza Party held from 13-16 October in Athens. Minister Delegate to EU, in his address to the participants, said that despite the UN, AU successive efforts, Morocco remains unwilling to accept UN-supervised referendum on self-determination to people of Western Sahara, Noting that Morocco has also challenged the authority of the UN mission in Western Sahara, MINURSO, and has repeatedly violated the cease-fire agreement between the two parties to the conflict. Moreover, Mohamed Sidati went on saying that Morocco has committed massive violations of human rights of Sahrawi civilians in the occupied territories documented by many international organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Robert F. Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights, underlining that there are now over 60 Sahrawi political prisoners detained following the p...

The European Union (EU) should ensure human rights' militants supporting Sahrawi people access to occupied territories in Western Sahara, Euro-MP Paloma Lopez, who questioned High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini about the measures taken in this regard. "What are the measures Mogherini intends to ensure access to European citizens to occupied territories in Western Sahara part of solidarity activities with the Sahrawi people?" she wrote in a question to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. She recalled that Moroccan authorities imposed restrictions to foreigners, who wish to visit Sahrawi occupied territories that remain closed to militants of human rights, journalists and lawyers who support Sahrawi people's right to self-determination.   The Euro-MP called on the EU top diplomat to "condemn" the expulsion on 26 September of young Spanish individuals from Al Ayoun...

The United Nations Security Council has held, Tuesday in New York, a meeting on Western Sahara, devoted mainly to the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and the situation in the occupied Sahrawi territories. UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for Western Sahara Christopher Ross will present an oral report on the Sahrawi issue. He was accompanied during the session, held behind closed doors, by the head of MINURSO, Kim Bolduc. Ross briefing will focus on MINURSO and the progress of the UN process for the resolution of the Western Sahara conflict, currently stalled by Morocco, which still refuses to cooperate with the UN mediator for the resumption of negotiations between the Polisario Front and Rabat. Ross will denounce Rabat's obstacles to his freedom of movement, impeding him to carry out his diplomatic shuttles for the resumption of the UN process, though urged in the Security Council's last resolution on Western Sahara in April.

President of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou on Tuesday has received Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Union and Arab League Abdelkader Messahel, who is on a working visit to Niger. Messahel has handed over a message from President of the Republic Abdelaziz Bouteflika to his Nigerian counterpart on the excellent relations between the two countries and the shared willingness to deepen and broaden cooperation between the two countries. Messahel also offered his condolences to the Nigerien people following the "barbaric terrorist" attack last week in the region of Tizali, west of Niger, and the attack on the prison of Koutou Kale. The audience was an opportunity for the minister to reaffirm Algeria's support to Niamey and to express satisfaction at the achievements made by the Nigerian government in the fight against terrorism. Messahel started Monday a working visit to Niger. During his visit, the minister will hold discussions with Niger's senior officials on issues of com...

NEW YORK (United Nations)- The United States proposed Tuesday at the UN Security Council to send a mission to Western Sahara to speed up UN  process for the settlement the conflict between Polisario Front and Morocco.

Algeria, which hosted the first meeting of the Foreign ministers of Libya's neighbouring countries in May 2014 on the sidelines of the ministerial meetings of the Non-Aligned Movement, has reaffirmed, on several occasions, its constant position on the crisis in Libya, stressing the "need to adopt a political solution, which preserves the unity and sovereignty of Libya and the cohesion of its people, as well as the necessity to combat terrorism, which has become a genuine threat to the future of the country, and the need to put the supreme interest of Libya above all other considerations." Niamey ministerial meeting is in line with the eighth meeting of Tunis (March 2016) and the seventh meeting of Algiers (December 2015), which allowed to mobilize the necessary support to the UN-sponsored political agreement and to Libya's Presidential Council, chaired by Fayez al-Sarraj. During those two meetings, the participants reiterated the objection of any military intervention...

The ninth ministerial meeting of Libya's neighbouring countries will be held in Niger's Niamey on Wednesday, with the participation of representatives of regional and international organizations with a view to deepening consultation and coordination between the countries of the region, in order to cope with the current challenges and support the political process in the country. The meeting will address "several issues related to the situation in the region, which is facing terrorism, organized crime, drug and arms trafficking and illegal migration," said Minister of Maghreb Affairs, African Union and Arab League Abdelkader Messahel. In addition to the Foreign ministers of Algeria, Niger, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Chad and Sudan, the meeting will be also attended by the United Nations Secretary General's Special Representative for Libya and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIl), Martin Kobler, Tanzania's former president and African Union Special Envoy...

The participants in the World March of Women (WMW), held in Maputo (Mozambique), has emphasized  that this initiative expressed the solidarity of world´s women with Saharawi women and denounced the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. Representatives from forty countries took part in the march of solidarity with the Saharawi women, they concluded on Saturday meetings that focused on several themes including "food self-sufficiency, violence against women, solidarity with the women of the world, freedom of women and refugee woman ". This event was an opportunity to elect the committee responsible for its management at the continent and one delegate for every continent, which Sahrawi Women Union was reelected in the World March of Women as a delegate of the African Continent. The participants have organized on Sunday a large march in the streets of Maputo. The march was completed by reading a recommendation in which they stressed the importance of granting the peoples the righ...

The chairman of the International Affairs Committee of Uruguay's Senate, Jorge Larranaga, has expressed his country's support to the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in its fight for independence, and UN efforts in the search for a peaceful, just solution allowing Western Sahara people to exert their inalienable right to self-determination. Larranaga, receiving Western Sahara's ambassador in Montevideo, Cheibani Abbass, said "Uruguay supports UN efforts for a peaceful and just solution allowing Saharawi people to enjoy their inalienable right to self-determination and independence, reports Monday Saharawi news agency, SPS said. The meeting took place in the presence of Lic. Emiliano Gomez, chairman of the Uruguyan group for friendship with the Saharawi Arab Republic Democratic (SADR), according to the source. The Saharawi diplomat informed the Uruguayan official about the latest developments in occupied Western Sahara, especially Morocco's violations of the...

Minister of Information Hamada Selma took part at the 5th African Internet Governance Forum, held from 16 to 18 October in Durban, South Africa, at the invitation of AU commission and South African Ministry of Communication. The meeting, which is attended by African ministers of communication, diplomatic corps accredited in South Africa, businessmen in the field of internet and communication, doctors and university specialists, and representatives of civil society, will address the main issues related to the use of Internet in the African countries.    A special session will be held at the level of the participating ministers and will issue recommendations submitted to the closing session of this meeting that will culminate in a document called the "Durban Declaration" on internet governance. 

The President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Mr. Brahim Ghali, arrived Friday evening in Lome to participate in the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government devoted to maritime security and development in Africa, held Saturday. The president of the Republic was welcomed on his arrival at the airport in Lome by Togolese president Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé. The extraordinary summit will adopt the Charter of Lome on maritime security and development in Africa presented by the Executive Council of the AU Summit of Heads of State and Government for approval. The president of the Republic is accompanied by Mohamed Salem Ould Salek and Hamdi Khalil Mayara, respectively Minister Foreign Affairs and Minister delegate in charge of African Affairs, as well as the Ambassador to Ethiopia and permanent representative of the to the AU, Lamine Baali, the Advisor to the Presidency of the Republic, Abdati Breika, and Hassina Selma, member of the Bureau of Sahraw...

The African Union (AU) Extraordinary Summit on Maritime Security and Development in Africa started Saturday in Togo’s capital Lomé, with a view to adopting a security charter and the creation of the necessary conditions for Africa’s development. Algeria is represented by Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal, accompanied by a delegation including Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Ramtane Lamamra. The Lomé Summit is set to bring together more than half of the AU Heads of State and Government to examine and adopt the African Union Charter on maritime security, safety and development in Africa. The Charter aims at preventing and reducing national and international crime notably terrorism, piracy, armed robbery against ships and migrant and human trafficking, and all forms of illegal trafficking at sea like illicit fishing. The Summit will consider the protection of the general environment and the maritime one and the promotion of cooperation in the...

The United Nations reaffirmation of the inalienable right of Sahrawi people to self-determination and the nature of the Western Sahara question as a decolonization issue "is a new failure for Morocco's attempts to mislead the international public opinion," said the Sahrawi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement, published by the Sahrawi news agency (SPS). The resolution on Western Sahara decolonization, adopted by the UN Fourth Committee on 10 October 2016, "reemphasizes UN's responsibility towards the Sahrawi people," said the statement. The resolution, co-sponsored by 26 countries, reaffirms UN position on the Sahrawi people cause, as an issue of the decolonization of Africa's last colony, and reaffirms Sahrawi people's inalienable right to self-determination and independence, in accordance with the provisions of the resolution 1514 (XV) of December 1960," added the statement. The resolution also reaffirms the support of the UN General Ass...

Sahrawi people will continue their legitimate struggle to exercise their right to independence and the establishment of an independent State, said Wednesday Sahrawi President and Polisario Front's Secretary General Ibrahim Ghali. In his opening address at the festivities commemorating the 41 st anniversary of the Sahrawi National Unity, President Ibrahim Ghali underlined that "nothing would undermine the strong determinationto achieve the noble goals of the Sahrawi people, who will continue their struggle and will remain faithful to the martyrs' message through all legitimate means under the leadership of the Polisario Front in order to exercise their right to freedom and the establishment of an independent State of the Sahrawi Republic." President Ghali said that the commemoration of the anniversary of the Sahrawi National Unity is a major event for the Sahrawi people. The festivities were attended by members of the Secretariat General of Polisario Front and the Sahr...

The celebration of the 41st anniversary of the National Saharawi Unity conveys a message that nothing can undermine Western Sahara people's will and determination to meet their "lofty and noble goals," Front Polisario's secretary general, Brahim Ghali, said Wednesday in the Dakhla Saharawi refugee camp.  "Saharawi people will persevere in their struggle, political activism and loyalty to their martyrs, using every legitimate means, and unified under the leadership of the Polisario Front, with a view to snatching their right to existence and freedom and to establishing an independent state over the entire Western Sahara territory," Saharawi President Brahim Ghali said in a ceremony opening the festivities of the 41st anniversary of the National Unity.  Ghali called on the international community to "take serious and urgent actions" to put an end to the sufferings of Saharawi people and dismantle Africa's last colony (Western Sahara). The Polisar...

Russian parliamentarians on Saturday have paid a visit to different areas in syria such as the commander of Russian troops, the logistics center of the Russian Navy in Tartus, a Russian military hospital, the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation airbase in Hmeimim and Navy base in Tartus. Members of the defense and security committee of the upper house of the Russian parliament visited airbase in Hmeimim and Navy base in Tartus in Syria, its press service said in a press release on Saturday; Sputnik reported. "Senators met with the commander of Russian troops in Syria, Col. Gen. Alexander Dvornikov, visited the logistics center of the Russian Navy in Tartus, a Russian military hospital, the Russian center for Syrian reconciliation," the press release read. Committee members assessed the state of Hmeimim base, its equipment and the living conditions of military personnel. They noted that the technical equipment of the air base met all modern requirements, while the hospita...

About twenty European parliamentarians called on Tuesday the head of the European diplomacy Federica Mogherini to exert pressure on Morocco to put an end to the “illegal detention” of the Sahrawi political prisoners of “Gdeim Izik” group and to “quash” all the accusations made against this group’s members, tried by a Moroccan military court. “We, as members of the European Parliament (…), we are asking for your intervention to ensure that all the accusations made against Gdeim Izik group are lifted and their military trial quashed, putting an end to their illegal detention,” wrote, in a letter sent to Mogherini, 23 Euro-MPs belonging to the five largest political groups of the European Parliament. Expressing their “solidarity” with the Sahrawi prisoners of Gdeim Izik group, the signatories of the letter call on the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to exert pressure on Morocco so that “the international observers are authorized to get...

UN General Assembly Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) adopted Monday in New York a resolution reaffirming Saharawi people's right to self-determination. The resolution, adopted at the end of a several-day general debate on decolonization, reiterated UN general Assembly's support of the negotiation process initiated by the Security Council to reach a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution ensuring Western Sahara people's right to self-determination. Presented by 25 countries, including Algeria, the resolution, greeted the efforts made by the UN secretary general and his personal envoy to Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, for the relaunch of the talks suspended in 2012. The resolution adopted, by consensus, invites the parties to the conflict (Polisario Front and Morocco) and the States of the region to fully cooperate with the United Nations envoy. The resolution has taken up UN clear and major ideas on the settlement of West...

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that US aggressiveness is growing, and threats to carry out cyberattacks against Russia are unprecedented, adding Russia will take “precautionary measures.” residential spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that “The fact is, US unpredictability and aggression keep growing, and such threats against Moscow and our country’s leadership are unprecedented, because the threat is being announced at the level of the US Vice President,” Peskov told RIA Novosti. “Of course, given such an aggressive, unpredictable line, we have to take measures to protect our interests, somehow hedge the risks,” he said, adding that “such unpredictability is dangerous for the whole world.” US Vice President Joe Biden said on Friday that Washington is ready to respond to hack attacks allegedly conducted by Russia and designed to interfere with the upcoming US elections. “Why haven’t we sent a message yet to Putin,” Chuck Todd, host of the “Meet the Press” show on NBC, aske...

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry says a Saudi Arabian individual has hacked its website, putting offensive, sectarian-charged content on it. Ministry spokesman Ahmad Jamal announced the news on Saturday, saying the ministry staff were trying to fix the problem, according to the country’s Arabic-language al-Sumaria TV network. The cyber-attack came only a day after Iraq’s Foreign Ministry reacted harshly to earlier remarks by Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, who had said Baghdad should not recruit Iraqi volunteer fighters known as al-Hashad al-Sha’bi or Popular Mobilization Units in its pending push to liberate the northern city of Mosul from the Takfiri terror group of Daesh. The fighters have proven a pivotal force in extricating the country from the clutches of the terrorists, who have been ravaging it since 2014. The ministry called the remarks void of any value and not even worthy of Baghdad’s attention. After closing in on the city for several months, Iraqi forces on Thursday...

Copenhagen (Denmark) September 17, 2016 (SPS) - The Danish government called Friday for the withdrawal of military forces from Elguergarat region and the respect of the cease-fire agreement signed between the Polisario Front and Morocco in 1991. The Danish Foreign Ministry affirmed, in a written response to questions raised by the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Danish Parliament, it supports an investigation into Morocco violation of ceasefire, calling on Morocco and the POLISARIO to resume negotiations to reach a final solution to the conflict in Western Sahara. As it regards the position on the plundering of Western Sahara resources, the Danish Government indicated it notified all companies to be caucious when it comes to economic activities in Western Sahara, stressing that human rights remains a priority in Danish foreign policy.

Shaheed El-Hafed (refugee camps) September 17, 2016 (SPS) A parliamentary delegation from El Salvador and Hungary is on a working visit Saturday in the Saharawi refugee camps, where it will meet with Sahrawi authorities. The delegation includes a member of the Salvadoran parliament and another of the Hungarian parliament, indicated the Bureau of the National Council, adding that the Salvadoran Parliament is expected to sign a protocol of action for the creation of a Sahrawi-Salvadoran parliamentary friendship commission. The bureau of the National Council (Parliament) decided the establishment of this commission at its meeting held Thursday under the chairmanship of Mr. Khatri Addouh. The parliamentary delegation will visit Sahrawi institutions to "find out about the democratic and institutional experience" and meet with Saharawi officials, added the source.

NEW YORK (United Nations)- Polisario Front called Friday the UN Security Council to intervene to prevent Morocco from building a road crossing the Saharawi territories, condemning UN breaking of its previous commitments about the project. In a letter to the chairman of the Security Council, just before a crisis meeting on Western Sahara, the Polisario Front expressed surprise over the position of the UN, which seems to "ignore its own decisions" about the project. The UN, which opposed in 2001 and 2002 the construction of the road that may be considered as a violation to the ceasefire agreement, has given in to Morocco's blackmail today, by accepting to build and to finance the project by itself.   "It means that the United Nations will turn into a firm in charge of financing Morocco's projects," while, in three previous reports, it had considered the project as a violation of the ceasefire, Ahmed Boukhari, the representative of the Polisario Front at the UN...

BRUSSELS-The opinion expressed by advocate general of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the case between the Polisario Front and the EU's Council on the Agreement on the liberalisation of trade in agricultural and fishery products with Morocco "paves the way for holding the self-determination referendum in Western Sahara," said lawyer of Polisario Front Gilles Devers.   "We welcome this opinion which confirms that Morocco has no sovereignty over Western Sahara. The advocate general affirmed that Western Sahara is a territory that must be decolonized. This opinion paves the way for holding the self-determination referendum," he told APS. In his conclusions published Tuesday, the advocate general emphasized that "the European Union and its Member States have never recognised that Western Sahara is part of Morocco, or that the latter has sovereignty over that territory. Since 1963, Western Sahara has been included by the UN on its list of no...