Jordan will open a consulate in Laayoune, Western Sahara, an official statement released in Rabat announced Thursday (November 19) amid very strong tensions in the former Spanish colony with still undefined status.
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It was during a telephone interview with the King of Morocco Mohamed VI, that Abdallah II of Jordan made this announcement which amounts to recognizing the legitimacy of the Moroccan presence in this territory that the separatists of the Front have been disputing with him for decades. Polisario supported by Algeria.
This strong gesture comes as the Polisario declared a "
state of war
" last week, ending a 30-year-old ceasefire, in reaction to a Moroccan military operation in a buffer zone of the extreme south to re-establish road traffic cut off by Sahrawi separatists.
The UN has since tried to put an end to the regular exchanges of fire between the two camps along the 2,700 km wall of sand built by Morocco to protect the western part it considers its own since the departure of the Spanish settlers. .
A total of 16 countries have already opened diplomatic representations since the end of 2019, in Laâyoune and Dakhla, a large fishing port located further south, following intense efforts by Moroccan diplomacy.
The Polisario considers the opening of these diplomatic representations as a "
violation of international law and (an) attack on the legal status of Western Sahara as a non-autonomous territory
".
During his appeal, King Abdullah II praised the "
decisions taken (..) to secure the movement of people and goods in the region of El Guerguerat in the Moroccan Sahara
", on the border with Mauritania, on an axis crucial road for trade with sub-Saharan Africa, according to the royal cabinet statement.
Read also: Western Sahara: new exchanges of fire according to the UN