The Polisario Front has decided to suspend its contacts with the Spanish Government in view of the support of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez "for the proposal of the Moroccan occupier who intends to legitimize the annexation of the territories of Western Sahara by force and ignoring the inalienable rights of the Saharawi people to self-determination and independence”, alluding to Madrid's commitment to the Moroccan autonomy plan for the former Spanish colony.
The decision was announced in a statement dated this Sunday morning in Bir Lehlu (Western Sahara) by the General Secretariat of the Saharawi movement, 48 hours after Sánchez traveled to Rabat to seal the diplomatic reconciliation with Mohamed VI.
The statement explains that the decision has been taken “in view of the concrete steps that the Government of Pedro Sánchez has taken in this regard […] to distance itself from using the Saharawi issue in the framework of miserable dealings with the occupier [referring to to the negotiations between Madrid and Rabat on the normalization of their relations]”, and until “it adheres to the resolutions of international legitimacy that recognize the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination and to respect the borders of their country as they are recognized internationally” .
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What are the short-term consequences of Sánchez's decision on the Sahara
Pro-Saharawi demonstration in front of the Congress of Deputies, on March 30 in Madrid. Photo: CLAUDIO ÁLVAREZ |
Video: EPV
The Polisario recalls that Spain “has responsibilities towards the Saharawi people and before the United Nations as the administering power of the territory”.
Finally, he thanks "both the democratic forces of the Spanish Congress of Deputies and the broad and transversal movement of solidarity" with the Saharawi cause "for so emphatically urging the central government on the need to return to the path of international legality in the Western Sahara and demand respect for the self-determination” of its people.
Spain does not diplomatically recognize the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), a full member of the African Union, but maintains relations with the Polisario Front, both politically and to facilitate Spanish cooperation with the Tindouf refugee camps, in Algeria.
The breakdown of contacts prevents Spain from being able to play the role of mediator between the parties in conflict, Morocco and the Polisario, and hinders the continuity of cooperation.
On March 14, Pedro Sánchez sent a letter to Mohamed VI in which, for the first time, Spain described the Moroccan proposal for autonomy for the Sahara, presented in 2007, as the "most serious, realistic and credible" basis for resolving the conflict, which has been going on for 47 years, putting it before the self-determination referendum.
On Thursday, while Sánchez traveled to Rabat to open a "new stage" in relations with Morocco, Congress rejected, with the support of all groups except the PSOE, the shift in the Spanish position in the Saharawi conflict.