2023-07-18 18:42:46
Two and a half years after the United States, Israel decided on Monday July 17 to “recognize the sovereignty of Morocco” in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, according to an announcement by the royal cabinet in Rabat, citing a letter from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The struggle for control of this desert territory, half the size of France and rich in natural resources, has pitted the Moroccan kingdom against the separatists of the Polisario Front since 1975. While Western Sahara still has no legal status, the conflict it arouses today is part of the regional rivalries of this area, marked by the establishment of jihadist terrorist groups.
UN Non-Self-Governing Territory
After eight centuries under the domination of the Almoravid and then Saadian dynasties, Western Sahara was placed under Spanish protectorate in 1884, within the framework of the Berlin conference. Moroccan claims to this territory, considered by the kingdom as an integral part of the borders of a “greater Morocco”, materialized after the country’s independence in 1956. An armed force attempted to enter the Sahara still under domination Spanish, but the offensive ended in failure.
In 1965, the Moroccan kingdom nevertheless registered the territory on the list of non-autonomous territories of the UN, these regions considered by the international body as not decolonized. In the process, the UN countries voted in favor of a non-binding resolution in favor of the self-determination of the Sahrawis.
In parallel, the Polisario Front was created in 1973 (abbreviation of “For the liberation of Saguit el Hamra and Rio d’Oro”, the two regions of present-day Western Sahara). This political and armed movement demands self-determination and independence for Western Sahara, with the support of Algeria. Spain ends up withdrawing from the territory, obtaining to keep the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco.
Annexation by Morocco
The Moroccan power takes advantage of the departure of the Spaniards to organize a new offensive and try to annex the territory. On November 6, 1975, 350,000 Moroccans entered Western Sahara during a “green march”, despite UN condemnations. While Morocco took control of a large part of the north of the territory, thousands of Sahrawis then fled to western Algeria, to Tindouf. The Algerian city becomes the rear base of the Sahrawi political entity, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), proclaimed in 1976. Mauritania also recovers part of Western Sahara, finally ceded to the SADR in 1979.
The situation got bogged down in the 1980s. Moroccan power gradually erected walls of sand to demarcate the territory conquered in 1975 and repel the incursions of separatists. This demarcation line of more than 2,500 km creates a new border which divides the country between the northern zone under Moroccan control (80%), and the south, under independence control, called “liberated territory” (20%).
In 1991, the UN sent a United Nations Mission for the organization of the referendum in Western Sahara (Minurso) in order to find a compromise. The protagonists accept a plan to resolve the conflict, which entails a ceasefire and must lead to a referendum on self-determination. But this vote has still not taken place, Morocco, supported by France, Spain and the United States, refusing to do so.
Dimension internationale
The Saharawis are therefore today divided between Western Sahara (between 500,000 and 600,000 inhabitants), Mauritania and Algeria (between 90,000 and 165,000 refugees in six camps), while Morocco is pursuing the economic development of northern territories. The Cherifian kingdom is also using the dispute over Western Sahara as leverage for negotiation on the international scene. For example, the country left the African Union in 1984 and stopped investing in African countries recognizing the independence of Western Sahara.
« (The Morocco) has made itself almost indispensable for Western countries insofar as it monitors the Strait of Gibraltar and it is useful in the retention of emigrants from sub-Saharan Africa in particular”, recently analyzed Khadija Mohsen-Finan at TV5 Monde. The political scientist specializing in the Maghreb also points to the role of the kingdom in the fight against jihadism, faced with the establishment of terrorist groups in the Sahel, such as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi).
Currently, 59 countries have positioned themselves in favor of the recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the territory of Western Sahara, including the United States, Spain and Germany, and 24 have opened diplomatic representations there, in Dakhla or Laayoune.
In 2015, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), however, ruled in favor of the separatists by annulling a trade agreement between Morocco and the EU. The Polisario Front considered that the application of this agreement would have violated international law and the commitments of the Union.
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