Polisario accuses Israel of acting to undermine Saharawi rights and regional security

The leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, has accused the Israeli government of acting to undermine “the legitimate rights” of the Saharawi population and the security and stability “in the whole region” as a result of its ties with Morocco.

Ghali has pointed to Israel and “other known parties” as responsible for acts that “include intensifying the flow of drugs from Morocco to support and incite organized crime and terrorist groups,” the Saharawi news agency SPS reported.

Thus, he stressed that Morocco is reaching “suspicious alliances” to promote “conspiracies to sow discord and attack the legitimacy and representativeness of the Polisario Front and the place of the Saharawi state in Africa and in the world”.

The agreement between Israel and Morocco to normalize relations came in December 2020, after the Israeli government signed a similar pact with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, within the framework of the ‘Abraham Accords’ — also joined by Sudan — mediated by then US President Donald Trump.

The former Spanish colony of Western Sahara was occupied by Morocco in 1975 despite the resistance of the Polisario Front, with whom it remained at war until 1991, when both parties signed a cease-fire with a view to holding a referendum on self-determination, but differences over the elaboration of the census and the inclusion or not of Moroccan settlers has so far prevented its convocation.

On November 14, 2020, the Polisario Front declared the cease-fire with Morocco broken in response to a Moroccan military action against Saharawi activists in Guerguerat, in the agreed zone of détente, which was for the Saharawis a violation of the terms of the cease-fire.