Nathan Shachar: The Saharawi people abandoned - now also by the UN

Already a year ago, the UN took the first step towards a change of sides in the conflict, when the Security Council, following pressure from Donald Trump, adopted Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara as a basis for further negotiations. The previous, internationally accepted path towards a solution, i.e. a referendum on independence for the Saharawi people, was thus abandoned. The letter "R" in the UN force's name stands for the French "référendum", referendum. During negotiations this week to extend the mandate of MINURSO (the UN mission for the organization of a referendum in Western Sahara), the United States, the main partner of the Moroccan regime, demanded that the r be removed and that the referendum be erased from the force's name as well - not just from reality. Russia vetoed the name change, after which the US vetoed the extension of Minurso's mandate.

The regime in Morocco already controls 80 percent – ​​the only habitable parts – of the former Spanish colony. The Western Saharan armed movement Polisario, with Algeria as its only active ally, is waging a low-intensity and fairly fruitless guerrilla campaign against Morocco. Now, without UN forces along the ceasefire line, challenging Morocco becomes far more dangerous. With the most modern weapons systems from the USA, Spain, France and Israel, Morocco can now be tempted to an offensive east of the "wall" against the last positions of the Polisario closest to the border with Algeria. The sand wall was created by Morocco in the 1980s and is called by the Sahrawis Jidar al-'Ar, "the wall of shame".

Western Sahara was taken over by Morocco in the fall of 1975 amid great drama. While Spain's dictator Francisco Franco was dying in Madrid, King Hassan II sent hundreds of thousands of civilians into the Spanish colony, many of them disguised as soldiers. The Spanish force in the area wanted to offer resistance, but Crown Prince Juan Carlos, who led Spain in Franco's absence, managed to avert confrontation in consultation with the United States. For the crown prince, it was crucial to lead Spain towards democracy after Franco's demise, not to fight over the empty deserts south of Morocco.

A referendum never took place, despite decades of discussion. Morocco, which has placed hundreds of thousands of settlers in the area, demanded voting rights on their behalf - which of course the Sahrawis opposed. Autonomy under Moroccan auspices will at best be something similar to the lot of other Moroccans - that is, a life in the shadow of an authoritarian regime. If their traditions and their language – an Arabic quite unlike other North Africans – were to flourish under Rabat's watch, it would be a sensation.