What’s Next for the Western Sahara Conflict?
A Sahrawi refugee camp in Tindouf, Algeria. (EU Civil Protection & Humanitarian Aid, https://flic.kr/p/bxuHsR; CC BY-SA 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en)
On Dec. 10, Morocco scored a long-dreamed-of foreign policy victory. After decades of international impasse and intense lobbying, the United States recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara territory, which Morocco has occupied since 1975. The U.S. recognition, in exchange for Morocco normalizing relations with Israel, opens a new chapter in an issue that has long been static. And it has implications not only for Morocco and the Polisario Front—which represents the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), the government in exile that aims to govern Western Sahara—but also for those indirectly involved: Algeria, the United States and the European Union.