During its presidency of the United Nations Security Council, on January 2025, Algeria devoted itself to defending just causes, confronting challenges that threaten peace and security in the world and amplifying Africa’s voice.
Algerian diplomacy, under the high guidance of President of the Republic Abdelmadjid Tebboune, was able to raise many issues and challenges facing peace and security in the world on the table of this UN body, such as the Palestinian issue and the threats to stop the activities of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), the situation in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Libya and Sudan. As well as the crises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Colombia, and the fight against terrorism in the African continent.
The period of Algeria’s presidency of the UN Security Council witnessed the holding of 16 ministerial meetings on the Middle East, 9 meetings on African issues, 37 open meetings and closed consultations. Three presidential statements and four council resolutions were also issued, equivalent to 75 hours of meetings, without using the veto.
-The central cause, Palestine:
The efforts of Algerian diplomacy were crowned with a positive outcome during its presidency of the Security Council, in addition to other successes it has achieved since its election as a non-permanent member of the United Nations, most notably the issuance of a resolution calling for an “immediate” and “permanent” ceasefire in Gaza in March 2024 after the Council failed to adopt several other draft resolutions due to the American veto. As well as re-raising the issue of granting the State of Palestine full membership in the United Nations, where Algeria succeeded in getting 143 countries to recognize Palestine as a full member of the United Nations.
During its presidency of the Security Council, Algeria recommended the importance of the Council assuming its responsibilities to consolidate the agreement between the Palestinian and Israeli sides and follow up on its implementation, and push towards launching a serious political process under the auspices of the United Nations to reach a just settlement of the Palestinian cause, all of which is a commitment to continue its efforts to support the Palestinian people and meet their humanitarian needs, and contribute to the path of Palestinian national reconciliation.
During this meeting, which was praised by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, and widely appreciated by the member states of the United Nations, Algeria renewed “Algeria’s readiness, under the leadership of the President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to continue its usual role and its effective engagement in all international efforts aimed at meeting the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people as soon as the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip is lifted, supporting the path of reconciliation and Palestinian national unity, as well as strengthening the two-state solution enshrined by international legality by consolidating the pillars of the establishment of the Palestinian state and enabling it to gain full membership in the United Nations.”
Regarding Arab issues, Algeria stressed the importance of concerted efforts between the League of Arab States and the United Nations to keep Lebanon away from the ongoing unrest, and stressed the need to accompany Syria in the path of restoring peace and security and restoring its full sovereignty, in addition to stopping military interventions that hinder security and peace efforts in Yemen, and supporting a Yemeni-led political process under the auspices of the United Nations. Algeria was also able to obtain a historic approval allowing the Libyan Investment Authority to reinvest its frozen assets in international financial organizations, a decision that protects these assets from erosion and preserves their value. It also succeeded in obliging the Sanctions Committee to inform the Libyan authorities of developments in frozen assets, thus giving Libya a greater opportunity to trace its funds.
– Algeria, prominent role in the fight against terrorism in Africa:
As the President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, is responsible of the file of fight against terrorism in Africa, and in light of the shift of the global terrorism hotbed to the Sahel-Sahara region, Algeria called for a high-level meeting, in order to sound the alarm about the critical situation resulting from the spread of terrorism in Africa.
This meeting was an opportunity to reaffirm the urgent need to revive international interest in order to confront this scourge. In this context, Mr. Ahmed Attaf, Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, National Community Abroad and African Affairs, presented Algeria’s approach to the fight against terrorism and violent extremism in Africa, which requires addressing the manifestations of this phenomenon and its root causes, and requires taking into account the various development and security aspects in a coordinated and integrated manner.
In this context, he pointed out Algeria’s full conviction that what Africa is facing is not a local threat, but a global threat that has no borders and will sooner or later create wide-ranging repercussions that go beyond the affected African regions, stressing that this conviction is directly inspired by Algeria’s bitter and successful experience in combating this scourge.
All participating African ministers praised the efforts of the President of the Republic and his active role in leading continental efforts in the field of confronting this scourge, stressing that Algeria’s pioneering experience has widely inspired various dimensions of joint African action in the field of combating terrorism. The Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security of the African Union, Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, also expressed his sincere appreciation to the President of the Republic for his capable leadership of the African Union’s efforts in this field and his continued support for the relevant collective efforts emanating from the “Oran Process”.
As a culmination of this high-level meeting, the Security Council adopted a presidential statement, at the initiative of Algeria in its national capacity, highlighting the institutional structure for combating terrorism in Africa. This represents an important development as it enshrines, for the first time, recognition at the highest international level of the role of the African Union’s supporter for the prevention and fight against terrorism, vested in the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who was chosen by his African counterparts to assume this responsibility.
These successes and the decisions reached reflect Algeria’s pioneering and consistent positions in defending the causes of security and peace in the world, combating terrorism in Africa and supporting just causes wherever they may be in Palestine or Western Sahara, thus demonstrating once again the high efficiency and well-known experience of Algerian diplomacy in achieving great accomplishments in sensitive files.
