The Moroccan (Western) Sahara file has flared up to zero solution case due to the rebels Polisario Front’s (SADR) approach to the option of field escalation at the Guerguerat border crossing. The Kingdom of Morocco proclaimed, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, that “there is no political talks with separatists, no diplomacy with bandits, no political process with those who have unable to resolve Moroccan Sahara issue and who work as armed groups and as a gang “, in his response to the developments of The last incidents in Guerguerat.
To anti-peace and stability groups, Foreign Minister in his statement to noted, “Whoever practices provocations deviates from international legitimacy and puts himself in confrontation with the United Nations and international law, and this is not strange for groups operating with the logic of gangs.”
Additionally, Bourita described what happening at the border crossing between the Kingdom of Morocco and Mauritania as a “group of hijackers or muggers in the true sense”, before pointing out that the Polisario Front (SADR) cannot be addressing Morocco in any resolution process and cannot form the basis for any political series.
In parallel with the UN Security Council resolution on extending the mandate of the MINURSO mission one more year, the Polisario Front strongly declared a rebellion against the United Nations by rejecting to respond to the repeated calls to withdraw from the Guerguerat crossing, which puts it in a collision with the UN organization.
Accordingly, it doesn’t make sense to see the Polisario Front (SADR) chose for the first time in its statements to be hostile to the United Nations and the MINURSO mission during its discourse about the Guerguerat borders crossing, which it uses as a coercive card before to the announcement of the Security Council report as Al-Mousawi Al-Ajlawi pointed out, an expert on Moroccan Sahara conflict and African affairs. Thus, the Polisario is currently in direct conflict with the United Nations, because the ceasefire agreement was not signed by the front with the Kingdom of Morocco, but was signed with the United Nations.
From the very beginning, the Kingdom has drawn attention to the fact that the upsurge of the Polisario Front (SADR) is due first to the absence of anything called “liberated territories concept” in the UN report of the Secretary-General, which is the same trend that the forthcoming Security Council resolution takes, and then secondly to the confirmation of current UN political resolutions that the conflict is categorized as a regional dispute including Algeria as the main part of this issue. Meanwhile, the Kingdom believes that the strong phrase statement issued by the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs is a warning to the United Nations that the Polisario Front (SADR) has overstepped all limits in its irrational provocations.
On the other hand, The Kingdom considers the Guerguerat commercial border crossing region is Moroccan, leaving it voluntarily and with its consent in the hands of the United Nations to facilitate its operations in monitoring the implementation of the ceasefire agreement between it and the United Nations and between the latter and the Polisario, and that the United Nations through the MINURSO mission is responsible for it, and it has been warning and threatening that in case The inability of the United Nations to restraint in the Polisario Front, which is heading to change the situation there, as it will militarily assume this mission, according to previous experiences in the region since the 2016 and 2018.
In the relation to the two previous crises, the Security Council expected the task of affirming the nature of the buffer zone, stopping at the seriousness and sensitivity of the attacks of military and civilian Polisario Front elements on it, and ordering it to immediately evacuate and refrain from making any change in its current situation, and not to settle any facilities. Rather, the head of MINURSO, the Special Representative, and the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General reject to receive them by the leaders of the Polisario Front (SADR) in the region to avoid any inaccurate explanation or disguised interpretation of this and to use it to claim any international recognition or legitimacy of the Polisario Front on the region.
More specifically, The Sahrawi Association for Solidarity and Awareness of the Autonomy Project and Sustainable Development sent a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in which it noted that the Guerguerat crossing is seeing a dangerous and worrying escalation on the part of the “Polisario armed group” and Algeria after they paid many residents of Tindouf camps and a bunch of recruits in civilian clothes in order to shut down the commercial crossing.
The same association considered that these intimidations “constitute a serious violation and demonstrates Algeria’s outrageous intention to create an insecure environment in the region,” stating that what assures this is that these moves coincide with several people loyal to “Polisario SADR” and Algeria declaring the establishment of a separatist party Politics in the city of El-Ayoun, to undermined and jeopardize the stability of the Kingdom.
In a response to the increased leverage of Polisario Front in Guerguerat borders crossing, the Moroccan Secretary of Foreign Affairs also visited conflicted borders recently, warning that Polisario Front (SADR) was an impendence to the territory’s future. True, the region is experiencing tension that may lead to a new military conflict, but the Polisario Front cannot fire a single bullet without getting the green light from the host backer state, Algeria.
Strategically, Morocco deems that Algeria has tried to drive a wedge between Morocco and Polisario Front as it did during the previous years. Yet, Algeria always pushing towards fueling the situation in the Guerguerat borders zone,. because the Algerian regime today needs an outlet to divert attention from what is happening inside the country, especially to pass the referendum phase on the constitution and disregard the ongoing arrests and the widespread condemnation campaign regarding the deteriorating human rights condition and rule of law.
All in all, it is noted that the developments in Algeria may push the latter to set fire to the Guerguerat border crossing and destabilizing the region, and these new developments will not work the new UN special envoy to be appointed to succeed Horst Köhler in carrying out his duties, particularly since the accumulations of achieved negotiations table among both conflictual parties by the Geneva sessions. Therefore, The kingdom of Morocco has fully committed itself to the decisions of the international society, because we are a state of principles, legitimacy and we do not seek a military confrontation, while the Polisario Front (SADR) and its supporter Algeria did not abide by them. The United Nations must do its part to put an end to the provocations against the Kingdom of Morocco, and to reopen the Guerguerat crossing as soon as possible.
