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The independence movement Frente Polisario on Thursday condemned a statement by US President Donald Trump, who backs the Moroccan government on the disputed region of Western Sahara.
“The Polisario and the Sahrawi government condemn in the strongest terms the fact that the outgoing US president, Donald Trump, attributes to Morocco something that is not” of the country, “the Saharawi Information Ministry said in a statement to AFP.
The Polisario Front is an Algerian-backed independence movement that occupies a fifth of Western Sahara and has campaigned for a vote on self-determination during decades of war and stalemate.
The region was colonized by Spain in the 19th century and was annexed by Morocco in 1975. The Polisario independence front, which represents the local Sahrawi population, fought against Moroccan forces for years for control of the territory.
It seems unlikely that the US move will lead other Western states or the UN to abandon their own long-standing position of calling for a referendum to resolve the dispute. The UN said its position has not changed.
Morocco normalizes Israeli relations and obtains recognition of sovereignty
Trump, whose term ends in January, said Thursday that he had agreed to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory, while announcing that Morocco was normalizing relations with Israel.
“Trump’s decision does not change anything in legal terms on the issue of the Sahrawis because the international community does not recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara,” said the Polisario Front statement.
“It constitutes a flagrant violation of the UN charter … and the founding principles of the African Union, and hinders the efforts of the international community to find a peaceful solution to the conflict between the Sahrawi Republic and the Kingdom of Morocco,” additional .
A spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said Thursday that the UN chief believes that “the solution to the issue can still be found on the basis of Security Council resolutions.”
Tensions flare
In its statement, the Polisario urged the UN and the AU to “pressure the Kingdom of Morocco to end its occupation of Western Sahara.”
Tensions flared again last month between Morocco and the Polisario.
A decades-long ceasefire collapsed in mid-November after Morocco said it had sent troops into no-man’s-land to reopen a highway to neighboring Mauritania.
The UN-led talks between the two sides, which also include Algeria and Mauritania, collapsed several months earlier.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)
