Western Sahara, disputed territory between Morocco and the Sahrawi separatists supported by Algeria, “is not to be negotiated”, declared Saturday the king of Morocco Mohammed VI, pleading however for a “peaceful settlement” of the conflict between the two enemy brothers of the Maghreb.
“Today as in the past, the Moroccan character of the Sahara will never be on the agenda of any negotiation”, underlined Mohammed VI, in a speech broadcast by national television.
“In fact, the Moroccan character of the Sahara is a truth as perennial as it is immutable. It therefore suffers no dispute”, assured the Moroccan monarch.
This statement comes against a backdrop of strong tensions with Algeria over the former Spanish colony.
“If we engage in negotiations, it is essentially to achieve a peaceful settlement of this artificial regional conflict”, continued Mohammed VI in a speech delivered on the occasion of the 46th anniversary of the “Green March” towards Western Sahara.
In November 1975, at the call of King Hassan II, 350,000 Moroccans crossed on foot the border of Western Sahara, then a Spanish colony, in the name of “belonging” to the territory to the kingdom.
Towards the resumption of negotiations under the aegis of the UN
The UN Security Council a week ago called on the parties to the conflict to resume negotiations “without preconditions and in good faith”.
These negotiations are to be resumed, under the aegis of the new UN envoy, the Italo-Swedish Staffan de Mistura, “with a view to reaching a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution” with a view to a “self-determination of the people of Western Sahara”, specifies the UN, in a resolution which extends for one year the UN mission (Minurso) in the region.
The speech of the Moroccan sovereign, eagerly awaited, came at a time when relations between the two enemy brothers of the Maghreb were at their lowest.
Last August, after months of friction, Algiers severed diplomatic relations with Morocco, accusing it of “hostile actions”. Rabat regretted a “completely unjustified” decision.
The tension has further increased in recent days after Algeria reported a bombardment that caused the death of three Algerian truckers in Western Sahara, a territory disputed between Morocco and the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, which Algiers attributed to Rabat.
From military intervention to American recognition
In his speech, the king welcomed the decision of former President Donald Trump, in December 2020, to recognize the sovereignty of Rabat over Western Sahara, in return for normalizing Morocco’s relations with Israel.
“It is the natural corollary of the constant support of previous American administrations and the illustration of their constructive contribution to the process of settling the Sahara issue,“ he said.
Finally, Mohammed VI praised the intervention of the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) which “restored the free movement of people and goods at the Guerguerat crossing point” connecting Morocco and Mauritania.
On November 13, 2020, a ceasefire concluded in 1991 between Morocco and the Polisario Front under the auspices of the UN had shattered after the deployment of Moroccan troops in the far south of Western Sahara to dislodge separatists which blocked the only road to Mauritania, according to them illegal. The Polisario has since declared a state of war.
“This firm peaceful action put an end to the provocations and aggressions which Morocco had already signaled to the international community to be serious for the security and for the stability of the region”, justified the monarch.
Western Sahara, located on the Atlantic coast and bordered by Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria, is considered a “non-self-governing territory” by the UN in the absence of a final settlement. With its rich mining subsoil and its coasts full of fish, it is the only territory on the African continent whose post-colonial status remains unresolved.
Morocco controls 80% of it and offers broad autonomy under its sovereignty, while the Polisario demands a self-determination referendum.
The Green March: the “poker hand” of Hassan II on Western Sahara
On November 6, 1975, the King of Morocco, Hassan II organized a pacifist march towards the Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara), with the aim of recovering the region, considered to be historically part of the Moroccan Sahara. About 350,000 civilian volunteers are mobilized.
Morocco claims the sovereignty of this territory, occupied by Spain, since its independence in 1956. In 1974, Spain announced the organization of a referendum on the self-determination of the territory, which the Shereefian kingdom did not want to hear. Spain then asks the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to rule on this decision. The ICJ admits that the territory did not belong to anyone before colonization by Spain, but does not note Moroccan sovereignty for all that.
Hassan II then decides to try a final “poker hand” , to establish the sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sahara and to counter the Polisario Front on the spot. He calls on Moroccans to (re) take possession of the territory, still occupied by Spain, by marching there, peacefully.
Hundreds of thousands of Moroccan civilians, unarmed, each carrying a Koran and a national flag, surrounded by nearly 20,000 soldiers of the Royal Armed Forces therefore entered Western Sahara on November 6, 1975. This historic event is still taking place today. ‘hui in the post-colonial Moroccan national novel.
The legitimacy of the takeover of the territory by Morocco is not recognized by the UN, which also does not recognize the legitimacy of the Polisario Front’s proclamation to make it the Sahrawi Arab Republic (SADR) in 1976.
November 6 is a national holiday in Morocco. The King makes a speech there every year.
