Has Trump Finally Ended Western Sahara’s Dream of Freedom?

On October 31, the United States succeeded in passing a resolution (UNSC 2797) in the United Nations Security Council, largely endorsing a dubious Moroccan “autonomy” proposal that would recognize its takeover of the Western Sahara nation. The kingdom, with the support of the United States, seized this former Spanish colony by force in 1975, in defiance of almost the entire international community.

The U.S.-backed autonomy plan relies on the assumption that Western Sahara is already part of Morocco, an assertion that has long been rejected by the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, which considers Western Sahara a non-autonomous territory and therefore incomplete decolonization. The African Union recognizes Western Sahara as a full member state, as do more than 80 countries.

For decades, a series of UN Security Council resolutions have called for a referendum by the people of Western Sahara – known as Sahrawis and who have a history, dialect and culture distinct from those of most Moroccans – to choose between integration into their northern neighbor or independence. Morocco, however, refused to authorize the holding of the plebiscite.

Fully accepting Morocco’s autonomy plan would mean that, for the first time since the ratification of the United Nations Charter 80 years ago, the international community would formally recognize the expansion of a country’s territory by military force, thereby setting a very dangerous and destabilizing precedent for the benefit of people like Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu.

Currently, the United States and Israel are the only two countries to have formally recognized the illegal annexation of Morocco.

If the people of Western Sahara accepted an agreement for autonomy rather than independence through a free and fair referendum, this would constitute a legitimate act of self-determination. However, Morocco categorically excludes offering this option to the Sahrawis, who appear overwhelmingly in favor of independence.

The details of the Moroccan proposal are rather vague and leave considerable discretion to that country’s autocratic monarch, Mohammed VI. Furthermore, the history of centralized authoritarian states delivering on promises of regional autonomy is rather poor and has often led to violent conflict, such as with Eritrea and Kosovo. And today, China’s promises of autonomy to Hong Kong and Macau are already seriously compromised.

At least a third of the country’s population lives in refugee camps administered by the government of Western Sahara (formerly known as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic), led by the Polisario Front, a moderate left-wing secular nationalist movement. An advisory member of the Socialist International, the international federation of social democratic parties, their president and parliament are regularly subject to competitive elections and women hold important leadership positions. Despite this, the Moroccan regime and its American supporters have repeated bizarre, unfounded and contradictory allegations that the Polisario is an extremist group linked to Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Russia and Iran.

And there is currently bipartisan legislation in Congress to declare the Polisario a “foreign terrorist organization,” even though the Polisario has never engaged in any acts of terrorism. They have officially ratified the Geneva Conventions and their protocols and are party to the African Union Anti-Terrorism Convention. The real purpose of the legislation is evident in the text decreeing that the terrorist designation, which would hamper relief operations in refugee camps and undermine subsequent diplomatic efforts, would be abandoned if the Polisario accepted Morocco’s autonomy plan.

While the UN Security Council resolution is certainly a setback for the country’s freedom struggle, it should not necessarily be seen as completely eliminating the Sahrawi right to self-determination. For example, the resolution includes clauses referring to the need for a “mutually acceptable resolution.” It calls for “real autonomy”, which the Moroccan proposal clearly is not. It also highlights the need for an agreement “consistent with the United Nations Charter,” which prohibits territorial expansion by force. And despite the United States’ insistence that Morocco’s autonomy proposal is the only basis for an agreement, the resolution simply says could represent A achievable result.