2023-09-08 08:40:38
Donald Trump shocked the world in 2020 by declaring Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara. The Government of Joe Biden has not publicly renounced the turn of its predecessor but, in practice, both the statements of its spokespersons and its latest diplomatic movements suggest that it is moving away from the turn taken by the Republican and getting closer to a negotiated solution supported by the United Nations, which advocates a referendum on self-determination. These changes are stirring the sands of conflict over the former Spanish province, open as a canal for almost half a century.
On the ground there is a real diplomatic frenzy. Official visits by US and UN officials to Morocco, Algeria and Western Sahara.
This Thursday, the United Nations special envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, will meet with Sahrawi activists against the Moroccan occupation in the city of Dakhla, the ancient Villa Cisneros Spanish, as this newspaper has learned from Sahrawi sources. He arrived on Monday in the Sahrawi capital of El Aaiún. Both places are controlled by Morocco.
The appointment is part of his work to prepare a report on the situation that he will then deliver to the Secretary General of the United Nations and he will defend before the General Assembly. The content of De Mistura’s meeting with the activists is unknown, but the symbolism is enormous. He represents the Minurso, the United Nations Mission for a Referendum in Western Sahara. The Moroccan Government had until now prevented De Mistura from entering the disputed territories to hold these meetings with dissidents. What has made you change your position now?
“I think it has been due to pressure from the United States”, argues Carlos Ruiz Miguel, expert on Western Sahara and professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Santiago de Compostela. “And that everything is related to another crisis, that of Niger. Washington is very concerned that the country [que acaba de sufrir un golpe de Estado] fall into the hands of Russia.” Several African countries and France defend the possibility of an invasion to restore democratic order. In this context, the key country, due to its geographical position and the strength of its Army, is Algeria. “Biden has sent emissaries to speak with the Algerian government to seek its support. Algiers will have asked for something in return, most likely related to Western Sahara.”
This Wednesday, The director of the CIA has called the head of the Algerian Army, according to Algiers. William Joseph Burns telephoned Said Chengriha to, according to the statement, discuss security in the region and the fight against terrorism, without giving further details.
Diplomatic action on the Sahara
Encounters in the area have multiplied in recent days. The head of American diplomacy for the Middle East and North Africa, Joshua Harris, last Saturday he visited the Sahrawi refugee camps in the Algerian region of Tindouf. He met with the general secretary of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, Morocco’s nemesis. In 2020, after an attack with deaths on the border between Mauritania and the Sahrawi territories controlled by Morocco, the Polisario declared the ceasefire signed with Morocco in 1991 broken and declared a state of war.
Harris expressed the support of the United States and reaffirmed after the visit to Ghali her support “for the UN political process to a political solution” in Western Sahara. A totally different tone than that used by the Trump Administration.
1/2 In support of the UN political process on Western Sahara, Deputy Assistant Secretary Joshua Harris visited Tindouf to consult with a range of stakeholders, including Secretary-General Brahim Ghali and senior Frente POLISARIO representatives as well as UN agencies,…
— U.S. State Dept – Near Eastern Affairs (@StateDept_NEA) September 2, 2023
The diplomat asked to find a “durable and dignified solution for the people of Western Sahara” based on the spirit of “realism and commitment”.
A day later, Harris went to Algiers to meet with his counterpart from the Algerian Foreign Ministry. Algeria is the great supporter of the Polisario Front, to whom it supplies weapons. Algeria defends the UN plan to carry out a self-determination referendum, which ensures that it will respect what comes out, whether independence or annexation to Morocco.
United States on the Sahara
When Donald Trump made his striking declaration of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, he also signed an even more important document, a tripartite agreement between the United States, Israel and Morocco. “In it, Washington undertook to defend Moroccan theses in all international forums, in all of them. Not only has he not done it, but he has been quite the opposite. He voted in favor of last year’s United Nations Security Council resolution on Western Sahara and in the UN General Assembly,” says Ruiz Miguel. In these resolutions, the thesis defended is not the autonomy plan proposed by Rabat, but “the need to reach a political solution to the question of Western Sahara that is realistic, viable, lasting and acceptable to all parties and is based in the compromise.”
The latest statements from Biden’s spokesmen have been along the same lines. In an interview with the Algerian media, US Undersecretary of State Joshua Harris insisted that “Washington is strongly aligned with the international political process in Western Sahara.” Harris himself has highlighted the new American approach to the conflict in another meeting, this time with the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Naser Burita, with whom he met this Thursday in Rabat. The United States considers the “ Moroccan Autonomy Plan as serious, credible and realistic and a potential approach to achieving the aspirations of the people of Western Sahara.” A good plan, but only one of the possible ones. Another could be the self-determination referendum advocated by the United Nations. Pedro Sánchez went much further in his letter to Mohamed VI last year: the autonomy plan is now considered by Spain as “the more serious, realistic and credible.”
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