Morocco/ Western Sahara: It’s the final countdown

by Khalil Asmar

Following the speech of July 30th celebrating 15 years of his reign, the Moroccan king once again is burying his head in the sand in an attempt to undermine the initiative to decolonize Western Sahara which the UN Security General recently declared. In effect, the king has announced what he called “the advanced regionalization” for his “southern provinces”, a term to describe the occupied Western Sahara, which will mark the beginning of implementation of his project of autonomy he announced in 2007. This one-sided move can be described as no more than the politics of running away from the facts and an intransigent attitude against international will.

The UN resolution 2152 issued last April stressed the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination according to international law, while not even the slightest mention was afforded to Morocco’s plan of autonomy, which the Moroccan king is now aiming to implement. UN Resolution 2152 should therefore have been acknowledged as the final laying to rest of the Moroccan proposal. Moreover, the UN Secretary General has also underscored that unless there is tangible progress made at the negotiating table between the two opponents, namely the Polisario Front, which is the only legitimate representative of the indigenous Saharawis, and the kingdom of Morocco, the UN’s ongoing but stalled peace process is bound to be wholly reviewed, announcing the end of 2015 as a deadline for a new approach. That is to say, the UN will have to bring a new strategy to the table, in the event the two sides fail to reach a mutual agreement, and although that literally has only one meaning, it can practically take on different interpretations and outcomes.

In fact, more than two decades have elapsed since the international community was supposed to hold the promised referendum, and in the absence of any solution in the near horizon, the UN’s change of strategy is going to be binding on both sides. Accordingly, either the Saharawi issue will shift to the 7th UN chapter, and thus impose a solution on the two opposing parties, one which is valid only in accordance with international law and UN resolutions that call for a fair and democratic referendum in which the Saharawi people are bound to cast their votes on either independence from or integration within the Moroccan kingdom, or the UN will come out with another plan to force the opposing sides, and in particular Morocco, to abide by international law and enable the Saharawi people to exercise their inalienable right of self-determination and independence. It is, therefore, the beginning of the final countdown to the decolonization of occupied Western Sahara.

Faced with such an ultimatum, and during a meeting prior to the king’s speech between the committees of foreign affairs in the parliament and the counselors council, the Moroccan minister of foreign affairs and cooperation had stated the latest developments of what he described as “the national issue” declaring Morocco’s rejection of any solution outside the “national solution”; a reference to the Moroccan autonomy proposal that the Polisario Front, the Saharawi people, and the international community have long rejected, and he announced that Morocco would unilaterally implement the autonomy project. To cope with this solution, the minister called for the creation of a joint commission from the government, the Parliament and the Council of Advisors to defend the “territorial integrity of Morocco”. 

If Morocco’s autonomy plan died the moment it was unequivocally pronounced, at a moment when no country in the world recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, then the unilateral implementation of the autonomy project against the will of the Saharawi people, the United Nations, and the international community is considered an ignominious move of sheer madness and an anarchical attitude never before witnessed in international conflicts resolutions.

In light of these hectic decisions and in an attempt to preempt any looming undesired surprises, Rabat’s regime delineated three elements before the UN as prerequisites for any further cooperation with the UN’s mediation to resolve the Western Sahara issue: asking the UN to provide clarification on the nature of the special envoy’s task; insisting on UN commitment for an agreed political solution, and demanding that Minurso, the UN peacekeeping force deployed in 1991 to organize a referendum in Western Sahara, should stick to ceasefire monitoring.

The failure of the Moroccan attempt to withdraw confidence in the Secretary General’s personal envoy to Western Sahara, Mr. Christopher Ross, and the determination of the United Nations to end this persistent conflict as it is a decolonization issue, are a clear indication that the international community is serious this time in wanting to bring about an immediate solution by squarely intervening, as the current impasse threatens the security and stability of the Maghreb and the Sahel and hampers the true development of the whole region. In retrospect, this Moroccan offensive is no more than an evasive tactic seeking to avoid its international obligations as much as it is a swaggering display of rhetoric for local consumption.

This long political and human standstill has become unacceptable, and the longer it takes, the more radical and oppressive the Moroccan occupation becomes, as the streets of the occupied territories of Western Sahara witness on a regular basis human rights being disproportionately and cruelly violated while tens of thousands of Saharawi still languish in refugee camps. To avoid the resumption of hostilities and war, the UN’s move to intervene and impose a solution comes at the right moment to end this interminable limbo.