The African territory has been fighting for half a century.
The Polisario Front has officially refused to participate in any political processes that it believes "legitimize the illegal Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara."
The statement was a response to the American draft resolution at the UN, extending the mandate of the MINURSO peacekeeping mission (which has been monitoring the ceasefire and preparing a referendum on Western Sahara since 1991) until October 31, 2026. The UN Security Council will vote on the American draft today, October 30.
"We will not sit at the negotiating table if the outcome is already predetermined. Any frameworks that exclude a free referendum are tantamount to capitulation to the fact of occupation," the document signed by the Secretary-General of the Polisario Front Brahim Ghali states.
It also mentions that a draft referendum has been handed over to UN Secretary-General António Guterres — a document that for the first time allows for three options for the future of Western Sahara:
— full independence of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR),
— integration with Morocco as a regular province,
— free association (autonomy similar to the Faroe Islands).
The second option — integration with Morocco as a regular province — is a "backup scenario" in the referendum. It is needed by the Polisario Front to show flexibility and to dispel accusations of intransigence. This deprives Morocco of its main argument: "Polisario only wants independence; dialogue is impossible."
"Yes, we are ready to discuss even the Moroccan autonomy plan, but only if it is chosen by the people in a referendum with the possibility of also voting for independence," confirmed the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the SADR Mohamed Salem Beissat.
On the same day, the largest protests took place in five refugee camps in Algeria. Thousands of Sahrawis — descendants of those who fled from Moroccan and Mauritanian bombings in 1975–1976 — chanted: "Self-determination or nothing!"
The official representative of the Moroccan Foreign Ministry Ayman Falak called the position of the Polisario Front a "provocation":
"The 2007 autonomy plan is the only realistic basis. A referendum with the option of independence is excluded."
Western Sahara was a Spanish colony until 1975. After Spain's departure, the region became a subject of dispute between Morocco and the Polisario Front, which proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in 1976 with the support of Algeria. The autonomy plan proposed by Rabat has recently gained recognition from the USA, France, the UK, Kenya, and Ghana.
To the north, it borders Morocco, to the northeast — Algeria, to the east and south — Mauritania; to the west, it is washed by the Atlantic Ocean. The area is 266,000 km² (Britain - 243,610 sq. km). The largest city is El Aaiún. According to estimates, the population in July 2005 was 373,008, in 2010 — 405,210, and in 2015 — 586,000; mainly Arabs and Arabized Berbers, many of whom lead a nomadic lifestyle. It is estimated that about 40,000 live in the Free Zone and about 100,000 people are in refugee camps in Algeria.
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