Israel’s Recognition of Morocco’s Sovereignty Over Western Sahara Offers Biden Chance To Change Course

As Israel joins America in recognizing Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, it is time for President Biden to cut the cord on what has been a decades-long study in failed diplomacy. Boldly pushing allies to acknowledge current facts of an African dispute rooted in the Cold War could help advance the Abraham Accords. This week Jerusalem declared its recognition of Rabat’s decades-long rule over West Sahara. The desert tract has few natural resources other than phosphate and fisheries, yet it has become a perennial source of tensions between Morocco and neighbor Algeria, which supports the Polisario Front, a group demanding full independence there. Following Jerusalem’s recognition of Rabat’s sovereignty, King Mohammed VI invited Prime Minister Netanyahu for a first official Moroccan visit by an Israeli head of government. The American state department’s spokesman, Matt Miller, then noted that America’s recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara “has not been changed.”In 2020 President Trump was first to state that America “recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara territory.” His proclamation helped along peace agreements between Israel and four Arab countries, including Morocco, known as the Abraham Accords. President Biden ignored bipartisan lobbying to reverse Mr. Trump’s decision, and did not officially rescind Washington’s recognition. Instead, he farmed out American policy to that place where peace processes go to die: the United Nations.“We fully support the UN personal envoy of the secretary-general, Staffan de Mistura, as he intensifies efforts to achieve an enduring and dignified political solution for Western Sahara,” Mr. Miller told reporters this week. “That’s like saying they want to do nothing,” a veteran UN diplomat told the Sun, asking not to be identified. While Washington recognizes Morocco’s sovereignty, it “still plays the same old game, acting like a referee and expressing neutrality between Morocco and Algeria,” he said. Since Mr. De Mistura was appointed special envoy two years ago, the veteran UN troubleshooter has rarely shown up in the region. He proposed no new ideas for resolving the impasse other than promoting the UN’s peacekeepers known as Minurso, or Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. The referendum idea harks back to 1991, when the Polisario and Morocco signed a ceasefire agreement that contained a call for polling those who live in Western Sahara on the region’s future. Since then the sides couldn’t agree on how to conduct the plebiscite. Rabat demanded that all residents, including Moroccans who had recently moved to Western Sahara, would vote. The Polisario, backed by Algeria and Russia, demanded that only those who were included in a 1972 census conducted by Spain, which colonized Western Sahara at the time, would participate. As diplomats and UN busybodies kept harping on a referendum that seemed dead on arrival, a new idea arose: Starting in President Clinton’s era, American diplomats attempted to push for partial autonomy in Western Sahara, a move that at different times was rejected by both sides. Yet, an American special envoy to the region, Elliot Abrams, finally convinced King Mohammed to declare that Western Sahara, as part of Morocco, would grant the region a self-governing status. As autonomy became Morocco’s adopted plan, the Polisario summarily rejected it, insisting on complete independence instead. In his recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty, President Trump wrote that “an independent Sahrawi State is not a realistic option for resolving the conflict and that genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only feasible solution.”Autonomy could well resolve a dispute that harks back to the Cold War, when the Soviet Union backed the Polisario as part of its efforts to create, fund, and arm militant groups around the world as part of what it said was a struggle against Western colonialism, but in fact was a global fight for turf against America. Russia remains the Polisario’s most adamant supporter beside Morocco’s neighboring enemy Algeria, which strives to gain access to the Atlantic through Western Sahara. With Algeria’s large natural oil reserves, several European countries have recently changed positions on the dispute. Notably, France, the region’s former colonial power, has long supported Morocco, but President Macron has changed sides. At Washington, several politicians with ties to the oil and gas industries also criticized what Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma called Mr. Trump’s “shocking and deeply disappointing” recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty.For whatever it’s worth, Rabat countered an Algerian-proposed pipeline that would transfer its gas to Europe with its own plan — piping gas to Spain from Nigeria through Morocco. Both the Algerian and Moroccan plans are yet to be realized. In the 18th century Morocco became the world’s first country to recognize America. Today, its peace with Israel is arguably the warmest among all Arab countries. Mr. Biden has professed a desire to widen the Abraham Accords beyond Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, and Morocco.Ending Washington’s ambiguities and pushing European and other allies to back Rabat on Western Sahara could convince fence-sitting Arab countries that joining the circle of Mideast peace has benefits in addition to the gains they can make by cooperating with Israel.

Israel’s Recognition of Morocco’s Sovereignty Over Western Sahara Offers Biden Chance To Change Course

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