"The Algerian Government has learned with great regret and deep disapproval of the unexpected, inopportune and counterproductive decision of the French government providing unequivocal and unqualified support for the autonomy plan for Western Sahara within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty ," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad said in a statement.
Noting that the "decision was officially communicated to the Algerian authorities by the French authorities in recent days", the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes that "the colonial powers, old and new, know how to recognize each other, understand each other and extend helping hands to each other".
According to the MAE, "the French decision is clearly based on a dubious political calculation, a morally questionable a priori and legal interpretations that are neither supported nor justified."
"This French decision does not help to bring together the conditions for a peaceful settlement of the question of Western Sahara, it reinforces an impasse, the one created precisely by the so-called Moroccan autonomy plan and which has lasted for more than seventeen years ," he said.
For the MAE, "moreover, and even though the international community has long been convinced that the question of Western Sahara undoubtedly falls within the scope of a decolonization process to be completed, this same French decision perverts and distorts the data by giving support to a colonial fact and by providing unjustifiable support to a contested and questionable sovereignty of Morocco over the territory of Western Sahara."
This French position, he continued, "is all the more unwelcome as it comes from a permanent member of the Security Council which is supposed to act in accordance with the decisions of this body in a particular manner and with international legality in a general manner."
"Finally, and while the current situation is witnessing a mobilization of goodwill within the United Nations with the aim of giving new impetus to the search for a settlement to the conflict in Western Sahara, the same French decision runs counter to these efforts, the deployment of which it thwarts and hinders in the higher interest of peace, stability and security in the region ," he deplored.
The Algerian government maintains from the French decision that "it absolutely does not serve the objective of peace in Western Sahara, that it helps to prolong an impasse and that it justifies and helps to consolidate the colonial fait accompli in this territory," he maintained.
"The Algerian Government will draw all the consequences that arise from this French decision and for which the French Government alone assumes full and entire responsibility ," the statement concluded.