Leaks about breakdown of secret negotiations between the Moroccan regime and the Sahrawis

The three rounds of secret negotiations between the Moroccan regime and the Polisario Front have not shown any signs of progress that would encourage their continuation, according to the British online newspaper “Middle East Eye”, citing unnamed diplomatic sources familiar with the matter.

Ignacio Cembrero, a Spanish journalist specializing in Maghreb affairs, explained in an article published on Sunday that information leaked from the corridors of the secret negotiations, sponsored by the United Nations and the United States, during the past three rounds, confirms that “the mission is more difficult than previously expected”.

Cembrero wrote: “Last month alone saw three rounds of negotiations at the foreign minister level, but with little progress”. He quoted diplomatic sources as saying, “Washington wants to move quickly, but it faces fundamental disagreements between the main actors, despite the details recently added to the Moroccan autonomy plan at the request of the Trump administration”.

He said that the United States wants to reach an agreement by next spring, in line with the wishes of the Moroccan regime, which has given the American president everything he asked for, such as joining the Abraham Accords and normalizing relations with the Zionist entity in 2020, and then recently joining the “Peace Council” for the administration in Gaza. However, the mission has proven to be more difficult than expected so far, which was acknowledged by Donald Trump’s advisor for Arab and African affairs, Massad Boulos.

One of the most prominent indications of the current state of the negotiations, says Ignacio Cembrero, is what former White House senior advisor Steve Witkoff confirmed, who previously spoke about the possibility of reaching a peace agreement in the Maghreb region within 60 days last October. However, no signs of rapprochement have appeared after four months, following three secret rounds of talks between the end of January and the end of February (two rounds in Washington, and one round in Madrid).

The same sources described what is happening behind closed doors as “intense negotiations”, due to each party’s insistence on its position. The Polisario Front representatives in the negotiations expressed their complete adherence to the fact that the Sahrawi people alone have the right to determine the final status of the occupied territory, while Rabat rejects this option and demands a constitutional referendum in which all Moroccans, numbering approximately 37 million, participate.

So far, no new date has been set for the upcoming rounds of negotiations between the two conflicting parties, despite the United States’ keenness to achieve progress on this issue before next April, which will see the re-submission of the Sahrawi issue to the United Nations.

This raises the possibility that the secret negotiations will clash with the will of the Sahrawi party, which rejects any solution that does not respect the inalienable rights of the Sahrawi people to self-determination.