Newsweek Highlights Growing Support for Moroccanness of Sahara

The prestigious American magazine Newsweek underlines, in its latest issue, that a growing number of countries, including the United States, support Morocco’s full sovereignty over its Sahara, noting that some thirty states have opened consulates general in Laayoune and Dakhla.

In an article by Gordon Chang, the magazine recalls that the United States officially recognizes the sovereignty of Morocco over its southern provinces since 2020.

In this context, the author of the article highlights the “long-time” relationship between the United States and Morocco, indicating that Rabat is a “natural partner” of Washington.

In addition, the U.S. magazine singled out Algeria, the “polisario’s” main backer, pointing out that this country, immersed in archaism, provides money, weapons and military training to the separatist militia.

This armed group, which is only a “proxy” in the hands of the Algerian regime, can in no way claim to be a state, said the author of the article, pointing out that Algeria, which is “increasingly hard-line state, is in no position to promote individual rights.”

The author of the article refers the Algerian regime to its contradictions and wonders: “Should Algeria be divided as well, in order to recognize MAK, the Movement for Self-Determination of Kabylie, a Berber secessionist force?”

While recalling the fundamental unsustainability of the secessionist aims of the polisario, Newsweek quotes the former U.S. ambassador to Rabat, Thomas Riley, for whom “Morocco is stable and peaceful, but Algeria and the rest of the region are particularly troubled.”

“In a world now dividing into camps, Washington should back friends and not enemies,” the magazine noted, quoting Jonathan Bass, consultant at InfraGlobal Partners.

The U.S. publication concludes that “the world does not need another crisis”, and that both the United States and the broader international community have an interest in stability, by supporting the Kingdom of Morocco.