Western Sahara: Washington Reconfirms Return To Traditional Positions

It is becoming clear from day to day that the position of the American administration, under current President Joe Biden, on the Western Sahara issue, is no longer that which was crystallized by his predecessor, Donald Trump, in his final days in the White House, after he lost the presidential elections during his famous tweet, which later turned out to have no effect in Washington’s position on the Sahrawi issue.

This reading is not just an analysis based on wishes, but rather based on the text of the draft resolution of the United Nations Security Council, related to Western Sahara and the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), proposed by the United States of America, which will be discussed by the Security Council.

The fourth recommendation of the draft resolution: “Calls upon the parties to resume negotiations under the auspices of the Secretary-General without preconditions and in good faith, taking into account the efforts made since 2006 and subsequent developments to achieve a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara in the context of arrangements consistent with the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, and noting the role and responsibilities of the parties in this respect”

This resolution includes many pivotal points that confirm Washington’s position as the one who proposed this draft (the penholder), and the first of these points is that it speaks about “two parties” in the negotiations, and not as required by the Moroccan regime, which has not stopped demanding Algeria’s participation in the negotiations.

It also constitutes a strong blow to the ambitions of the Moroccan regime, which stipulates that negotiations with the Polisario Front be limited every time to the autonomy plan that Rabat presented in 2007. This means that the American administration no longer sees in the Moroccan proposal a solution that can lead to resolving the situation. This resolution confirms the need to “take into account the efforts made since 2006,” that is before the Moroccan regime presented its initiative, the autonomy plan.

The other issue raised by the draft is the emphasis on “self-determination for the people of Western Sahara,” which is a given that can be discussed on two levels. The first level is that “self-determination” still imposes itself as a credible way out for resolving the conflict in Western Sahara, which has been going on for five decades.

The second level relates to the use of the phrase “the people of Western Sahara,” and this fact confirms that the United States of America, as the author of the proposal, distinguishes between the Moroccan people and the Sahrawi people and that they are two peoples separate from each other, contrary to what is promoted by the Moroccan regime, which is trying to eliminate the Sahrawi component by calling Western Sahara the “southern provinces,” as stated in its political, diplomatic, and media statements.

In turn, Recommendation 15 of the resolution emphasizes the issue of Sahrawi refugees in Tindouf and calls for expanding aid to meet the necessary humanitarian needs and facilitating its delivery: “Strongly urges Member States to provide new and additional voluntary contributions to fund food programmes to ensure that the humanitarian needs of refugees are adequately addressed and avoid reductions in food rations; and urges aid agencies to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid following United Nations best practices”.

Recommendation No. 15 affirms that the United States of America recognizes the presence of Sahrawi refugees on the territory of a neighbouring country, fleeing the oppression of the army and police of the Moroccan regime, and stresses that they have the right to receive all their humanitarian needs, and this is a rejection of the Moroccan proposals that have not stopped harassing them, through unjust descriptions that exist only in the imaginations of the Moroccan occupation authorities.