The Polisario leaders have been devastated by the Arab Lawyers Union’s initiative to hold the closing session of its Congress in Laayoune, regional capital of Western Sahara, after it convened the first days of the gathering in Agadir, on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, informed sources from the Tindouf camps said.
The decision was highly symbolic as it implied backing to the territorial unity of Morocco, besides the fact that the Union called Arab states to defend Morocco’s cause “in all international forums.”
This is a blow to the Sahrawi separatist movement and its main diplomatic and military support, Algeria, the sources said. This setback is so bitter for the Polisario and Algeria especially that it comes after a series of other setbacks they suffered internationally.
The latest failure dates back to last April at the UN Security Council. The 15 members of the UN body had adopted a resolution that ignored the claims of Algeria and the Polisario for the expansion of the MINURSO mandate.
Furthermore, Algeria and the Sahrawi separatist movement suffer from their chronic inability to achieve any breakthrough at the Arab level, this space having remained resolutely opposed to the Algerian project to create a sixth state in the Maghreb. Algeria encounters the same misfortune at the international level, since no major world capital deems the establishment of a Republic in the Sahara a workable, credible project.
In addition, none of the permanent members of the Security Council adheres to the project of a Sahrawi state under the control of the Polisario Front, a Stalinist movement that still lives on the memories of the 60s and 70s. Worse, major powers consider that Algeria’s support to the Polisario contributes to maintaining a climate of instability in a particularly vulnerable area.
This analysis proved relevant as jihadist and separatist groups thrived in Mali and in the Sahel-Sahara region and plunged Libya in a state of chaos.
