Polisario renounces independence as the “only option” against Morocco and celebrates US mediation

A military parade scheduled for early in the morning may well begin after noon in the district of Auserd. A place where men with mustaches, worn military uniforms and sun-cracked skin proliferate.

It does not matter that the parade in question commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the proclamation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (RASD), a kind of party state only raised about the exile of the Algerian desert.

Symbolism does not alter customs, and Tindouf is already a custom in itself. The passage of decades made a seemingly provisional solution permanent.

The eternal dispute with Morocco This is the reason why these camps currently house more than 100,000 Sahrawi refugees, according to UNHCR estimates.

There are older ones, who still dream of returning to their homeland, who scrutinize every corner of their memory to bring out the last memory.

And there are also young people, who They have never known anything like a homelandand they don’t seem too convinced of being able to do it one day either.

Mohamed Yeslem Beisat He bears the weight of changing the physical and material reality of the Sahrawis, of undoing an exile that has lasted more than half a century.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and African Affairs of the SADR is in charge of representing the Polisario Front in the renewed negotiating process with Morocco, sponsored by the United States of America. Donald Trump.

“The Americans insist that in May or April we must reach another speed in search of an arrangement,” explains the veteran Sahrawi leader Bachir Mustafa Sayedrecently appointed president of the Sahrawi Parliament, before a delegation of Spanish politicians and activists in Auserd.

“Although the war in the Middle East distracts attention a bit,” he concedes.

The parties involved, including Algeria and the United Nations but among those that do not include Spain, they handle the dossier with enormous secrecy.

Beisat confirms that, since the UN Security Council approved Resolution 2797, there have been up to three rounds of dialogue. Two in Washington, and another at the United States Embassy in Madrid last February.

This document shows for the first time that the proposal of autonomy of Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty could be the “most viable” solution to resolve the dispute.

The diplomat who heads the Sahrawi delegation admits that his they cannot “make independence the only optionnor can the Moroccan autonomy plan be.

He also values ​​Trump’s involvement in the process. “We must give credit to the US Administration“he explains from the refugee camp itself.

“The fact that the United States carries out the mediation work gives the issue greater importance, more presence, and above all renew hope“says Sayed, confident that he has left the impasse in force since the last contact in 2021.

The Polisario Front prefers to minimize the position of Trump, a partial mediator that he already recognized in the last moments of his first term Moroccan sovereignty of Western Sahara.

This was the bargaining chip for the incorporation of Rabat into the Abraham Accordswhich served to normalize Israel’s relations with Arab countries.

Nor do the Sahrawi leaders want to attach too much importance to the role that the United States played in October during the approval of Resolution 2797, “the ugliest and most negative” for the interests of the Sahrawis, Sayed acknowledges.

“The draft was practically the materialization of Trump’s position from his first term. But it clashed with the positions of Russia and China, perhaps not so much for defending our rights as for limiting the scope of action of the United States.”

“As a mediator, the United States respects UN resolutions and its Magna Carta, and is one of the few powers that They can force Morocco to negotiate“insists Beisat, one of the greatest exponents of the second generation of leaders of the Polisario Front.

These are paintings of more possibilist spirit and greater willingness to negotiate that, despite having the trust of the leader Brahim Ghalithey break with the ways of the general secretary, who is more rigid and uncomfortable with improvisation.

The Sahrawi foreign minister considers that “the Western powers, including Spain, have realized that it doesn’t work to impose a solution“, and that factor is in favor of the Polisario.

But he also denounces “the duplicity” of Rabatwhose gestures of rapprochement in the successive rounds of dialogue do not correspond to their actions outside the negotiation table.

“After this time we have verified that Morocco does not act in good faith“he laments. The truth is that the Alawite kingdom has more cards in its hand to assert its position.

“Morocco is not a democratic regime that can accommodate reliable autonomy. The very notion of autonomy can only flourish in a democratic regime“, he claims.

The one in Rabat is a predictable regime in an unstable regionwhich controls migratory flows and exploits the natural resources of the occupied Sahara, despite resistance from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

And at the same time, it is strengthening his army thanks to its privileged relationship with United States and Israel.