Sahara talks in Madrid: Spanish FM meets key players except Polisario

On the sidelines of the Western Sahara negotiations held Sunday and Monday at the United States Embassy in Madrid, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares met with representatives of all the parties involved, with the notable exception of the head of the Polisario delegation, Mohamed Yeslem Beissat.

Albares began his consultations on Saturday, holding separate talks with his Algerian counterpart, Ahmed Attaf, and Mauritania’s foreign minister, Salem Ould Merzoug. On Monday, he continued his diplomatic engagements with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, and the head of the U.S. mission to the United Nations, Mike Waltz.

It is worth recalling that in April 2022, the Polisario Front officially announced «the suspension of all contact with the current Spanish government». The decision, the movement said in a statement, was prompted by «the Sanchez government’s support for Morocco’s plan to legitimize the forcible annexation of Western Sahara and to deny the inalienable rights of the Sahrawi people to self-determination and independence».

Since then, contacts between Polisario representatives and members of the far-left Sumar coalition have taken place strictly within a partisan framework, outside official institutional channels. These include the April 28, 2022 meeting between then–Minister of Consumer Affairs Alberto Garzón and a Polisario delegation, as well as the April 22, 2022 meeting between then–Secretary of State for the 2030 Agenda Santiago Enrique and a Polisario representative in Spain, held at the headquarters of the Communist Party.