Sidebar The Sahara Stalemate Morocco has been lauded for its ability to balance relations with both the Western and Muslim worlds. It cooperates with the United States to help root out terrorism in the Maghreb region, and with its history of religious tolerance, it’s even served as a quiet interlocutor in past Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. Yet it’s not the well-known conflicts in the Middle East that rank at the top of Morocco’s foreign policy to-do list — rather it’s the Western Sahara, an issue that has assumed near-obsessive status in Morocco. Morocco has effectively controlled about 80 percent of the former Spanish colony since 1976 despite opposition from the Algerian-backed pro-independence Polisario Front — resulting in the oldest territorial dispute in North Africa. And despite a U.N.-brokered ceasefire in 1991, it doesn’t look like there’ll be an end to the bitter standoff anytime soon, despite repeated peace proposals and international mediation. Morocco has offered considerable autonomy for the vast chunk of desert, which is the size of Britain and home to anywhere between 350,000 to upward of 500,000 people (because of the dispute, official numbers are hard to pinpoint). But the Polisario — which claims to represent the nomadic Saharan, or Sahrawi people — demands a referendum to determine the region’s future status, with independence as an option, a prospect Morocco outright rejects. Over the years, both sides have been accused of human rights abuses and both have also squabbled over the details of a referendum and who qualifies to vote (In 1975’s “Green March,” King Hassan II sent more than 300,000 Moroccans into the territory to boost the country’s presence there). U.N. special envoy James Baker was brought in to break the deadlock in 1997, coming up with a “framework agreement” in 2001 that provided autonomy for Sahrawis under Moroccan sovereignty, with a referendum after four years that included voting rights for Moroccan settler residents — a proposal the Polisario and Algeria dismissed. Two years later, a compromise deal proposed a referendum in five years that would include the option of integration with Morocco, semi-autonomy or independence — a plan Morocco balked at, citing security concerns. Morocco’s ambassador in Washington, Aziz Mekouar, insists that autonomy is the only realistic way forward at this point. “Who is Sahrawi, who is not Sahrawi, that’s a big deal…. It’s almost impossible to agree on who has the right to vote. That’s why we think the best way to go forward is some kind of autonomy,” he said. “We put forth an autonomy plan, which we thought was a very good compromise that really provided a devolution of powers,” he added, explaining that the region would have its own parliament and prime minister, and that the Sahrawi people would manage their day-to-day lives, though security and defense would fall under Morocco’s umbrella. The ambassador pointedly added that the autonomy proposal “was something Morocco was asked to do by the international community and we did it,” describing the plan as a win-win situation. “We think all this back and forth is a waste of time. It’s crazy to think of creating a new state in the region, especially one with such a small population and where the security [landscape] is dangerous,” Mekouar argued, echoing concerns that Polisario refugee camps in the south could become breeding grounds for Islamic insurgency groups. The Polisario counters that Morocco is trying plunder the Sahara’s phosphate resources and possible offshore oil deposits. But Mekouar says Moroccan ties to the Western Sahara have more to do with national “sentiment, security and history” — and that there aren’t any buried riches in the sand. “For every dollar that comes out of the Western Sahara, $7 of investment by Morocco goes in,” he said, noting that the population enjoys many privileges, including zero taxation, and that the central government has poured more than a billion dollars into developing the Western Sahara (in the process fortifying claims over the territory). Back in Washington, the Moroccan Embassy has embarked on an intense lobbying campaign to woo members of Congress — the ambassador pointed out that 233 members of the House agree that independence is not a feasible option — and taking politicians and journalists (the author included) to see the Western Sahara for themselves. On one such recent trip, The Washington Diplomat spoke with refugees who escaped the Polisario camps at Tindouf, where tens of thousands of refugees remain, living off international assistance. That stands in stark contrast to the relative progress in Dakhla, a picturesque ocean-side city that has benefited greatly from Morocco’s largesse and is touted as an example of the Western Sahara’s potential. Nevertheless, a final settlement remains elusive. President Obama has named a U.S. ambassador to Morocco — fundraiser Samuel Kaplan — who has so far only signaled he will work with the U.N. Western Sahara envoy to find “a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution,” without specifically mentioning Morocco’s autonomy plan. In the meantime, Mekouar says he hasn’t detected any shift in the Obama administration’s stance toward Morocco’s autonomy proposal, which was supported by George W. Bush, and that his government will wait to see what U.N. envoy Christopher Ross does to push the stalled Sahara negotiations forward. Ross held some discussions last month, which he said took place in an “atmosphere of serious frankness and mutual respect,” but he wouldn’t elaborate on when any further talks would take place, simply saying the date would be fixed in consultation with the parties. — Anna Gawel

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