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The Polisario has yet to settle on a clear line in response to the anger publicly expressed by the United States ambassador to Morocco, Duke Buchan, after his meeting with the head of MINURSO, Alexander Ivanko. While «sources close to the Front» said on Tuesday that the American diplomat’s remarks confirmed «Washington’s loss of neutrality», the rhetoric had shifted radically by Friday.
The same sources, described as high-level, are now accusing «American pressure groups close to Morocco of using Ambassador Buchan to sabotage the ongoing negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario Front through provocative statements likely to undermine the negotiation process», a Sahrawi media outlet close to the Front reported on May 22.
They went on to accuse those same groups of «encouraging US Senator Ted Cruz to adopt hostile positions toward the Polisario, thereby threatening peace efforts».
They concluded that «all these elements reveal a premeditated intention on Morocco’s part to manipulate the administration of US President Donald Trump by feigning a desire for peace that does not reflect reality and by using Trump’s name, as well as the credibility of the United States, to justify abuses and harm American interests in the region».
This change in tone toward the Trump administration is a telling sign of internal divisions within the Polisario leadership, between a camp in favor of escalation against the United States and a more pragmatic one that argues for avoiding any direct confrontation with Washington.
As a reminder, the day after armed Polisario elements fired projectiles at Es-Smara on May 5, Bachir Mustapha Sayed, in his capacity as president of the «Sahrawi parliament», denounced the wave of international condemnations targeting the attack, without, however, naming the United States, even though it was behind that diplomatic initiative.
