In a column devoted to the subject of the Sahara and the intervention of great powers such as the United States, Russia or even China, an American magazine maintains that Washington must support Morocco, and that the actor behind the Polisario puppet n is other than Algeria.
Gordon G. Chang analyzed the demands of the members of the separatist militia of the Polisario, the position of Morocco and the hidden intervention of Algeria as well as the interest for the international community to maintain peace in North Africa.
In North Africa, Morocco is locked in a decades-long struggle with Algeria and the Polisario Front group, which “is essentially an Algerian proxy” which controls the SADR, the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, not recognized by the UN, indicates Newsweek magazine.
The author of the article thus confirms a reality that only Algeria refutes: “Algeria supports the SADR and the Polisario with money, weapons and military training”.
Gordon G. Chang also suggests that if the argument of self-determination pushed by Algeria and the polisario, is “emotionally powerful”Algeria should already be an example in terms of democracy, respect for human rights and freedoms, and allow the self-determination of groups, such as the Polisario, within its territory.
“But Algeria, an increasingly harsh state, is not in a position to promote individual rights”, he summarizes. Concerning the Sahrawis, he declares that they “identify as a people and have, at least prima facie, a legitimate claim to self-determination. Yet it is not clear that Sahrawis have a right to a state of their own”.
For him, the aims of the Polisario are likely to “divide Morocco”and if one were to give this right to this group, he wonders what other groups would then have the right to form their own state?
“Should we also divide Algeria to recognize the MAK, the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia, a Berber secessionist force? he wonders.
Questioned on this subject, the former American ambassador to Morocco (2003-2009), Thomas Riley, indicated that obviously, “Western Sahara would not be a sustainable state” if it were to come into existence.
Morocco is stable and peaceful, but Algeria and the rest of the region are particularly troubled, adds the diplomat who maintains that the leaders of the separatist militia of the polisario/rasd, if they were to govern effectively, would have a hard time escape the problems plaguing their neighbors to the east and south. “And it is hard to see how the Sahrawi people would benefit from living in perpetual turbulence”he says.
This without forgetting that the real sponsor behind the polisario and the sard is Algeria, which has paid colossal sums for almost 5 decades with the sole aim of dividing Morocco and threatening its security through a group that does not bear its name. – but bears his signature.
At the geopolitical level, Thomas Riley, asserts that it is not fair and “not a good sign that the SADR’s main backer, Algeria, has its own dangerous backers: Russia and China”, he asserted.
“Being in Algeria is like living in Russia and China (…) IIt’s no wonder that Russians and Chinese feel at home there”he estimated.
“In a world that is now divided into camps, Washington should support its friends and not its enemies”, said Jonathan Bass, who follows China in the region for the energy consultant InfraGlobal Partners.
“Western-leaning Morocco is a natural partner for America, unlike China-leaning Russia and Algeria,” outbid the diplomat.
For the consulate at InfraGlobal Partners, China would play a role in the Sahara file “by funneling money through Iran and its proxies to Morocco’s enemies, especially the Polisario”.
It is thus true that the United States recently discovered shell companies established in China, which were used to divert the sale of Iranian arms under embargo.
For this, Newsweek argues that in a world that doesn’t need another crisis, “It wouldn’t take much for Moscow and Beijing to create one if America were to turn away from its longtime ally, Morocco,” emphasizing the need to support the Kingdom more ardently and quickly.