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It all began between November 6 and 9, 1975. Prince Juan Carlos took over as head of state, given Franco’s physical weakness; The demands that came from the Sahara required the intervention of the highest national authority. King Hassan II of Morocco had designed an invasion of the territory, which sought annexation to his country, which he baptized with the name the Green March.
The objective of the Madrid Tripartite Agreements was to legalize the Moroccan occupation of the Sahara, an occupation that had already been done
Since then, the betrayals of the Sahrawi people have been continuous until today, when the government of Pedro Sánchez definitively leaves the Sahrawis to their fate. On November 14, 1975, five days before the dictator’s death, in Madrid, the Tripartite Agreements were signed, by which the Kingdom of Spain unilaterally handed over the administration of Western Sahara to an administration made up of Spain, Morocco and Mauritania. One of the darkest pages of Spanish foreign policy was opening.
The objective of the Madrid Tripartite Agreements was to legalize the Moroccan occupation of the Sahara, an occupation that had already been done. The General Assembly of the United Nations decisively rejected the facts and presented a resolution demanding respect for international legality and recognizing the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination. To date no one has recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara. Morocco neither complies with international legislation nor recognizes UN resolutions.
But everything has changed, since Spain ratified in the final declaration of the XII High Level Meeting (RAN) held in Rabat its support for Morocco’s autonomy plan for the resolution of the Western Sahara conflict. “Spain reiterates the position expressed in the joint declaration adopted on April 7, 2022, on the occasion of the meeting between King Mohamed VI and the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, reads the joint declaration published, the most important appointment between the two countries in the last eight years.
In that declaration of April 2022, which ended the diplomatic crisis between the two countries that lasted a year. It was stated that Spain recognizes the importance of the issue of Western Sahara for Morocco and that it considers the Moroccan autonomy initiative, presented in 2007, as the most serious, realistic and credible basis to resolve this dispute. This marked a turn in Spain’s historical position of neutrality with respect to its former colony, which has been under the de facto administration of Morocco since 1975 and claimed by the Sahrawi Polisario Front.
In the final declaration of the XII High Level Meeting held in Rabat, Spain ratified its support for Morocco’s autonomy plan for the resolution of the Western Sahara conflict
Now, with the victory of Donald Trump in the United States, everything looks more favorable for Morocco. Uncertainty about what policies it will carry out at the height of the rise of the extreme right looms over the European Union and globally. At the international level Ukraine and the Middle East are especially looked at. But there is a very worrying derivative of the Western Sahara conflict. The events to date are as follows: In December 2020, when his first term was about to end, Trump announced that he had signed a proclamation recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara.
With the Donald Trump’s return to the White HouseMorocco will have a powerful ally in Western Sahara, since the former president was the first Western leader to recognize the Moroccan identity of that territory. Recently, French President Emmanuel Macron supported Rabat’s autonomy plan. During his visit to the Alawite kingdom, he assured that France will be on Morocco’s side in all its existential issues, including the future of Western Sahara.
For Bernabé López, a specialist in the Arab world and contemporary Maghreb at the Autonomous University, Donald Trump’s letter of December 10, 2020, recognizing the Moroccan identity of the Sahara, paved the way for countries such as Spain, Germany and recently France to approach to the Moroccan theses. The electoral victory of Donald Trump allows Morocco to think that the president-elect will complete the policy that he started, making a reality what was left in suspense during President Biden’s mandate, with the opening of a consulate in the Saharan city of Dakhla, the ancient Villa Cisneros. The United Nations Security Council’s resolution for a self-determination referendum in Western Sahara has proven to be completely ineffective. If the US and France act in unison, all is lost in Western Sahara.
The Spanish solidarity movement understands and understands that Spain must have good relations with its southern neighbor, as well as with the rest of the neighboring countries. In the case of Morocco, what is asked of Spain is that these good relations do not come at the expense of the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people. The PSOE recognizes that relations with Morocco are fundamental for territorial integrity, including Ceuta and Melilla. It is known that Morocco claims Ceuta and Melilla and opens the border at will, causing even the European Union to adopt a European Parliament resolution of June 10, 2021about the violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and the use of minors by the Moroccan authorities in the Ceuta migration crisis.
The PSOE insists in its argument after mentioning the importance of Spanish companies that operate in Morocco and that more than 800,000 Moroccans live in Spain, which has been working for months with one objective: that the defense of Spanish citizenship, of the interests of Spain, especially, our security, our sovereignty, our prosperity and our territorial integrity, including Ceuta and Melilla. The argument is alarming since if the change in position or sale of the Sahara to Morocco had not occurred, the territorial integrity of Spain would not be in danger.
According to art. 73 of the United Nations Charter, Spain has as a sacred charge the obligation to promote to the greatest extent possible, within the international peace and security system, the well-being of the inhabitants of those territories and also: to ensure, with due respect to the culture of the respective peoples, their political, economic, social and educational advancement, the fair treatment of said peoples and their protection against all abuse; to develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of the people, and to help them in the development of their free political institutions; promote international peace and security; and cooperate with each other to achieve the practical realization of social, economic and scientific purposes.
The change in position of the Government of Spain at the international level will not affect the resolution of the conflict, because Spain does not have the capacity to give effect to that declaration. It should not sign any agreement with Morocco that is applicable to Western Sahara, because it would be incurring international responsibility, and could be taken before the international court of justice if it concluded an agreement to delimit the jurisdictional waters of Western Sahara with Morocco. Spain has always tacitly supported the occupation of the territory. Our governments have never been neutral nor have they mediated between the parties. They have limited themselves to giving in to Moroccan blackmail (Ceuta, Melilla, organized immigration from and through Morocco). On the other hand, Spain has intervened in the trials before the CJEU against the Sahrawi people and the Polisario Front, because it has been delegitimized as a possible mediator for years.
Western Sahara remains a Non-Autonomous Territory pending decolonization and as such, all actors on the international political scene have the obligation to contribute to a free and independent Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (or at least not hinder its achievement). An opportune, appropriate and fair moment would have been the recognition of the Sahrawi State by Spain last May, when it recognized the State of Palestine. However, his Government chose to continue relegating the rights of the Sahrawi people, among other excuses, to a supposedly excellent neighborly relationship.
Against all odds and despite numerous attempts, the Sahrawi people remain determined to fight with full conviction and determination to effectively exercise their right to self-determination and independence. Those who believe that the Sahrawis are going to be victims of the passage of time do not know the nature of the desert. We may die, others will continue (Bukhari Ahmed).
It is worth remembering that although the Government of Spain insists on considering Morocco’s proposal as a realistic basis, this does not in any way alter the legal nature of the question of Western Sahara, given that it is an unfinished decolonization process, which It must be governed by what is established by International Law, in a political process within the United Nations as well as the African Union. Following the reaffirmation of the President of the Government, Spain definitively renounces the assumption of the prominent role that would correspond to it in the process of decolonization of Western Sahara, the POLISARIO Front states that it will continue to urge respect for International Law in all parts of the world.
For the self-determination and independence of Western Sahara, not the betrayal of the Government of Spain to the Sahrawi people, it is necessary to recognize the political nature of the Sahrawi exile: forced by the abandonment of the Spanish administration and the Moroccan military invasion that accompanied it; as well as addressing the real needs of the refugee population.
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