Western Sahara: the Polisario Front “breaks off” all contact with Madrid

Published on: 04/11/2022 – 11:24 The Polisario Front, an independence movement in Western Sahara, declared on Sunday that it was breaking its relations with Spain after Madrid’s support for Morocco on the thorny issue of former Spanish colony. The Saharawi separatists of the Polisario Front announced on Sunday April 10 “to break off” all contact with the Spanish government of Pedro Sanchez after a reversal of Madrid in favor of the Moroccan position on the question of Western Sahara. “The Polisario Front decides to break off its contacts with the current Spanish government so that it dissociates itself from the instrumentalization of the Sahrawi question within the framework of the lamentable haggling with the occupier (Moroccan, editor’s note)”, wrote the Polisario in a press release.>> To read: ” Western Sahara: at the origins of the crisis between Spain and Morocco “This rupture will persist until the Spanish government “conforms to the decisions of international legality, which international legality recognizes the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination and respect for the borders of his country, internationally recognized “.”An additional step”Showing his neutrality so far, the Prime Minister he Spanish colonizer publicly announced on March 18 his support for the Moroccan autonomy plan, which he now considers to be “the most serious, realistic and credible basis for the resolution of this dispute”. >> To read also: “Sahara West: “The Polisario Front has the right to represent the Saharawi people” in justice” Criticized from all sides in Spain but also by Algiers, the main support of the Polisario, the Spanish government affirms that it has not changed its position but only taken “a further step” in order to contribute to the resolution of the conflict which has opposed Morocco to the Polisario Front since the departure of the Spaniards in 1975. The Polisario justified its break with Madrid on “the principle that the Spanish State has responsibilities towards the Saharawi people and the United Nations, being the administrative power of the territory, responsibilities which thus remain imprescriptible”. End of the ceasefire since 2020 For Madrid, the restoration of relations with c Rabat’s main goal is to ensure its “cooperation” in controlling illegal immigration, while Morocco, from where most migrants leave for Spain, has been regularly accused by many observers, to use them as a means of pressure. The conflict in Western Sahara, a vast desert area with a coastline full of fish and a subsoil rich in phosphates, considered a “non-autonomous territory” by the UN, has for decades opposed the Morocco to the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front. Rabat, which controls nearly 80% of this territory, proposes an autonomy plan under its sovereignty while the Polisario demands a self-determination referendum, planned by the UN when it was signed in 1991 of a ceasefire, but never materialized. The ceasefire was shattered in November 2020 after the deployment of Moroccan troops in the far south of the territory to dislodge separatists who were blocking the only road to the Mauritania, s according to them illegal. Since then, the Polisario says it is “in a state of war of self-defense” and publishes a daily bulletin of its operations. With AFP