Negotiations in Geneva between Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Polisario under the auspices of the United Nations started on Thursday. The notion of self-determination was a sticking point in the round-table convened by the UN personal envoy.
The United States was interested in the Western Sahara conflict in the 1990s and the beginning of 2000s, according to a declassified document, submitted in 2009 by Morocco’s ambassador to Washington. The latter has conducted a series of actions to convince the Kingdom into abandoning the referendum and drafting an autonomy plan.
The Kingdom has always been a welcoming home for Algerian politicians who fell out of favor in the neighboring country. Several political figures and intellectuals found refuge in Morocco, after being forced to flee their motherland.