The last lost battle of the Polisario Front

The establishment of diplomatic relations with Morocco, on the front pages of Israeli newspapers, this Friday in Jerusalem.AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP

The recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara carried out on Thursday by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, represents the biggest setback for the Polisario Front since the Saharawi organization and Morocco agreed to a ceasefire at the UN in 1991. " This is a flagrant violation of United Nations resolutions and of the basic principles of international law, ”Sidi Mohamed Omar, representative of the Polisario Front to the UN, said in a telephone conversation from New York on Friday.

His organization hopes that the president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden, will correct the decision made by Trump in January.

But so far the Polisario has received limited support abroad.

In the last three decades, Morocco has known how to place its pawns in the diplomatic and commercial fields with a mixture of powerful international alliances - the aid from France and Spain have been key - and fait accompli.

In 2007, when Rabat presented its proposal to grant autonomy for Western Sahara to the UN, the UN Security Council stopped using the word referendum in its resolutions and adopted the expressions used by Morocco: “a credible solution, pragmatic and realistic ”.

This happened year after year, each time it was necessary to extend the mandate of the Ministry, which involves the displacement and sustenance of some 250 international observers on the ground.

The Minurso (United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara) was created in 1991 in order to organize a self-determination consultation, in addition to ensuring the ceasefire.

Implicitly, the UN had been supporting Rabat for several decades as the conflict fell into international oblivion.

In this context, the Polisario Front decided to draw attention last November with the blockade of the Guerguerat highway, which links Western Sahara with Mauritania.

The measure affected the commercial traffic of about 200 daily trucks that go down mainly with fruit and vegetables from Morocco to Mauritania.

The Moroccan Army broke up the protest on November 13 and there was an exchange of shots without injuries between rival forces.

The Sahrawis left the blockaded zone in a hurry and Rabat took advantage of the crisis to plant its flag in the neutral zone and establish its rule in Western Sahara right up to the very gates of Mauritania.

The following day, the Polisario Front decreed a state of war after denouncing the inaction of the Minurso in the face of what it considered a flagrant violation of the military agreements agreed after the ceasefire.

But no international body, not even the African Union, the only one that recognizes the Polisario Front, condemned Rabat for it.

Meanwhile, there were several countries, such as the Gulf monarchies, that supported Rabat through calls from their heads of state to King Mohamed VI.

This Thursday, after Trump's announcement, Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, hastened to declare that no solution will be possible if it is not "in line with the relevant Security Council resolutions."

France, Morocco's most faithful ally in the West, advocated through its diplomatic spokesperson for a "solution accepted by both parties", but insisted that Morocco's autonomy plan is "a basis for serious and credible discussion" on the one to negotiate.

The strongest criticism of Trump's decision has come from Russia, Algeria's key ally.

"What the Americans have done is a unilateral decision that completely exceeds the framework of international law," declared Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.

The great unknown is how Algeria, the main ally and protector of the Polisario Front, will react.

Its president, Abdelmayid Tebún, 74, is ill, and the Chief of the General Staff, General Said Chengriha, 74, a true strongman of the country, remains silent.

Rabat considers that its true rival is Algeria and that the Polisario Front is a mere puppet in the hands of the Algerians.

In Morocco, the digital site

Le360

, which enjoys excellent harmony with the Royal Palace, published an article this Friday in which it declared that "the Algeria-Polisario tandem" has been "stagnant" after the announcement of the agreement.

Comments on the networks

Nor have there been, at least for the moment, major critical voices in Morocco regarding the other leg of the agreement reached with Rabat: establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.

In social networks, contrary comments have been registered, not so much to the recognition by Trump of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, but to the fact of approaching Israel without having first solved the Palestinian cause.

Thus, an Internet user reported having woken up with "a taste of ashes in his mouth and a deep feeling of shame."

"The same sentiment as when our aviation bombed the children of Yemen for a handful of dollars," he added in reference to Morocco's participation in the alliance of Arab countries led by Saudi Arabia, which they charged in 2015 against the Shiite rebels in Yemen. , supported by Iran.

The Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), which presides over the government coalition, has always maintained a position opposed to any kind of normalization with Israel until the Palestinian cause is resolved.

But the head of the government and secretary general of the PJD, Saadedín el Otmani, has avoided referring to the agreement with Israel and has chosen to celebrate the recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.

However, Abdelaziz Aftati, a member of the General Secretariat of the PJD, told the daily

Alyaoum 24

that his party's stance against normalization "cannot change."

He added that normalization with Israel is "unacceptable and there is no place to link the problem of the Sahara with the Palestinian cause."

In the United States, some prominent voices have also been raised against the recognition of Trump.

Among them stands out those of Republican Jim Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Defense Committee, who described the decision as "shocking and deeply disappointing."

Those same words have been endorsed later by John Bolton, Trump's former Secretary of State, and James Baker, who was Chief of Staff under President Ronald Reagan and also a UN Special Representative to Western Sahara between 1997 and 2004. Baker declared that although the United States was founded with the principle of self-determination above all in mind, it now renounces those principles in relation to the people of Western Sahara.

"It is truly unfortunate," Baker said.

Despite those criticisms, the Donald Trump Administration and Morocco will go ahead with their three-way deal, along with Israel.