January 6, 2021 at 2:44 pm
Moroccans are grappling reluctantly with their country s shocking level of normalisation with Israel. They have organised sit-ins, and a petition to thwart the deal, while weighing the steep toll of the conflict of attrition with Algeria over the Sahara. However, neglect of the burning questions of the new reality still overwhelms Algerian policies.
A key facet in the new reality is that Morocco s normalisation follows the Guerguerat intervention. The Algeria-backed Polisario Front fled from the commercial corridor, while Rabat s approach to the Sahara conflict garners mounting support from African, Arab and international capitals and organisations.
Morocco is also becoming closer to the US, and President-elect Joe Biden may not rebuff the trilateral agreement. Rather, Washington might move the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) to Southern Morocco, generating more challenges for North Africa.
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.
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US President Donald Trump s surprise backing of Morocco s claim to sovereignty over disputed Western Sahara upended years of international consensus, but will this break a deadlock or inflame a conflict?
AFP looks at how a dispute often dubbed a forgotten war suddenly shot to world attention and what it means for the region.
For nearly three decades there was an uneasy but stable status quo in Western Sahara.
The former Spanish colony, home to less than a million people, has valuable resources including fish-rich Atlantic waters, phosphates, potential oil reserves and, for Rabat, a strategic road south to lucrative West African markets.
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The agreement is a win for Israel, and also for Morocco. As part of the deal, Mr Trump recognised Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara. The territory, slightly larger than Britain, is also claimed by the Polisario Front, a nationalist movement backed by Algeria. Mr Trump’s intervention comes amid provocations by both sides that risk restarting a war that ended three decades ago.
That old conflict kicked off in 1975, when Morocco annexed Western Sahara after Spain, the colonial power, pulled out. Polisario, which the
UN considers the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, resisted but was outgunned. With Morocco in control of about two-thirds of the territory, and Polisario controlling the other third, the
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Pro-independence Polisario Front rebel soldiers are seen during a military parade in the Western Sahara village of Tifariti, February 27, 2011 to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. (AP Photo/Arturo Rodriguez)
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AFP) US President Donald Trump’s surprise backing of Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over disputed Western Sahara upended years of international consensus, but will this break a deadlock or inflame a conflict?
Here’s a look at how a dispute often dubbed a “forgotten war” suddenly shot to world attention and what it means for the region.
What’s the issue?
For nearly three decades there was an uneasy but stable status quo in Western Sahara.