Thousands flooded the streets of the capital, Rabat, last Friday, holding national flags or portraits of King Mohammed VI, with many cheering and dancing. The occasion, the resolution supporting Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, thus confirming the international shift towards resolving a long-standing conflict that has plagued West Africa for decades.
The resolution, promoted by the United States, states that “a genuine autonomy under the sovereignty of Morocco could be the most viable solution”, thus adopting the position that the North African kingdom had already proposed since 2007, for the autonomy of the Western Sahara region. At the same time, the same resolution renews the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission for another year, with an evaluation of progress in six months.
“The US welcomes the historic vote, which seizes this unique juncture and strengthens the momentum for a long-awaited peace in Western Sahara,” said US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz. “The United States supports Morocco’s proposal as the only basis for a just and lasting solution to the dispute,” Donald Trump said in a message to King Mohammed. After all, the president of the USA himself was the one who from
in 2020 he had moved to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, calling Rabat’s autonomy plan “serious, credible and realistic”.
Outside Washington, the resolution passed with 11 votes in favor, with Russia, China and Pakistan abstaining. The most resounding absence, however, was that of Algeria, a traditional supporter of the Polisario Front, an ethnic liberation movement that has been in existence for decades and claims the independence of Western Sahara. The explanation given by Algeria’s foreign minister, Ahmed Ataf, was revealing of the change in the international climate. “We were ready to approve the resolution but it didn’t happen because of a change we requested and it was about the issue of Moroccan sovereignty,” he said speaking to his country’s state media and focused on the continuation of the UN presence.
Several analysts and experts in the wider Maghreb region speak of a discreet retreat in relation to the issue that plagues the relations between Algiers and Rabat, since in the text the criticism is accompanied by the realization that the differences between the two sides are no longer bridgeable, also due to the strengthening of Morocco at the military and diplomatic level.
The Trump factor
It is no coincidence that at this juncture and given the existing momentum, the White House has made known its intentions to mediate in favor of a comprehensive settlement of the bilateral disputes. The White House’s senior adviser on African affairs, Mashad Boulos, reiterated Washington’s commitment, while special envoy Steve Witkoff told CBS that “a Morocco-Algeria deal is possible within
60 days’ — although both countries have cut diplomatic ties since August 2021.
The intention of the US and the European Union is linked to the effort to reduce the influence of Russia primarily and China secondarily in North Africa, since both are Algeria’s main military blood donors (Beijing also maintains strong economic ties).
Whether such an intention will succeed depends on a number of factors, with Western Sahara perhaps being the most critical of them. “In Algeria they are happy with the intention to disengage the issue of Western Sahara from relations with the USA but at the same time they are worried about the way the resolution was promoted in the Security Council” points out Hugh Lovat, researcher of the European Council on International Relations (ECFR), bringing to the surface Algeria’s deepest fears about the correlation of power in the region.
The Polisario Front, representing the Sahrawis, was founded in 1973 with the aim of removing the Moroccans and creating an independent state called the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. When Spain withdrew from Western Sahara two years later, Morocco occupied the northern part and Mauritania the southern. The Polisario Front began the guerrilla war with the two states in 1976, with the support of Algeria where it moved its headquarters. It eventually signed a peace treaty with Mauritania, but Morocco seized the lands from which the Mauritanians withdrew, controlling Western Sahara since the 1980s.
