The Unresolved Western Sahara Conflict and Its Repercussions

The Unresolved Western Sahara Conflict and Its Repercussions

Yahia H. Zoubir argues that Western Sahara has become a “forgotten” or “frozen” conflict in which the rights of the Sahrawis are overshadowed by power politics. He describes Morocco’s takeover of the territory in 1975 as unlawful and made possible by Cold War alignments, and he calls the failure to decolonise Western Sahara a conspicuous failure of the UN, caused mainly by France and the United States blocking firmer action in the Security Council.

His evidence includes the territory’s fisheries, phosphates and possible oil and gas, which he says Morocco exploits illegally with European participation. He points to the Algeria-Morocco border, closed since 1994, the stalled Arab Maghreb Union, the very low level of trade within the Maghreb and the arms race between the two countries. He also covers the failed negotiations since 2007, Morocco’s autonomy proposal and France’s opposition in 2009 and 2010 to giving MINURSO a human rights mandate.

Zoubir concludes that the status quo will last unless Security Council members put international law ahead of their geopolitical interests, including by allowing independence as an option in any referendum.

Full article

Read the full article on Taylor & Francis Online

Support our work