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The draft resolution presented by the United States to the United Nations Security Council on the Sahara has caused a stir in the Tindouf camps. Polisario leaders are attempting to contain the political fallout following early reactions to Washington’s draft text, which acting as the Council’s «pen holder», reaffirms the Moroccan autonomy initiative as the basis for a solution. The separatist movement’s representative asserted that «the document reflects only the American position, not that of the fifteen members of the Security Council».
In remarks to an official Polisario media outlet, Mohamed Omar accused Washington of «supporting Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara», recalling that the United States «has supported the Green March from the very beginning (November 6, 1975) and continues to back the occupying state both diplomatically and militarily».
He added that this stance «was further reinforced in 2020», following former President Donald Trump’s recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara, and «reaffirmed in April this year», after discussions in Washington between Nasser Bourita and his American counterpart Marco Rubio.
«The future of the Sahrawi people is not in the hands of the United States, France, or any other power», Mohamed Omar said, «but rather in the hands of the Sahrawi people themselves, determined to defend their legitimate right to self-determination and independence».
Bachir Sayed Seizes the Moment
Mohamed Salem Ould Salek, former «foreign minister» and now diplomatic advisor to Brahim Ghali, struck a similar tone. In an article shared with Yabiladi, he accused the United States of «confiscating the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination and independence».
Behind these anxious yet defiant statements, the leak of the draft resolution has also been used politically by Brahim Ghali’s chief rival, Bachir Mustapha Sayed, who has sought to cast himself as the «savior of the Sahrawi people».
On Thursday night, he unveiled a new «roadmap» that revives the Polisario’s traditional demands: recognition of the self-proclaimed «Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic», maintaining the MINURSO mission «until a self-determination referendum is held», intensifying «popular resistance in the occupied territories», «continuing the war», and «rejecting any negotiations based on the enemy’s proposals».
In his address, Bachir Mustapha Sayed also sought to reassure Algiers, long wary of his ambitions, by condemning voices within the Tindouf camps that «criticize Algerian-Sahrawi relations». Indeed, on social media, growing numbers of camp residents have voiced anger over what they see as «Algeria’s abandonment of the Sahrawi cause».
Notably, Bachir Mustapha Sayed, the brother of the Polisario’s founder, spent years in political isolation after proposing in the early 2000s, without consulting Algerian authorities, to grant the United States a military base in the Sahara in exchange for Washington’s recognition of the self-proclaimed «Sahrawi republic» once independence was declared.
