Foreign relations of Western Sahara

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This article is part of the series: The Western Sahara conflict Western Sahara

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Western Sahara is the former Spanish colony of Spanish Sahara claimed and mostly administered by the Kingdom of Morocco since Spain handed over the territory to Morocco and Mauritania after the Madrid Accords in 1975-76, but sovereignty is unresolved and the United Nations (UN) is attempting to hold a referendum on the issue through the mission United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO.) Part of the territory is controlled by the nationalist group the Polisario Front as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). A UN-administered cease-fire has been in effect since September, 1991.

Contents 1 Positions of the parties 1.1 Kingdom of Morocco 1.2 Polisario Front 1.3 Algeria 1.4 United Nations 1.5 African Union 2 Recognition 3 States recognizing the SADR 4 List of states supporting Moroccan claims on Western Sahara 5 Other states 6 See also 7 References 8 External links 8.1 Tables of states recognizing the SADR 8.2 Others

[edit] Positions of the parties

[edit] Kingdom of Morocco

The position of the Kingdom of Morocco is that all of Western Sahara is an integral part of the Kingdom. The Moroccan government refers to Western Sahara only as the "Sahara," "Moroccan Sahara," "Saharan provinces," or the "Southern Provinces". Western Sahara is the historical birthplace of one of the most glorious Moroccan ruling dynasties, the Almoravids. In 1958, the Moroccan Liberation Army of the South fought Spanish colonizers and almost liberated what was then Spanish Sahara. Among the veterans of the Moroccan Southern Army are fathers of many of the Polisario leaders, like the father of Mohammed Abdelaziz, the Polisario leader. Morocco is supported in this view by a number of former Polisario founders and leaders. The Polisario Front is considered by Morocco to be a Moroccan separatist movement, referring to the Moroccan origins of most of its founding members, and its self-proclaimed SADR to be a puppet state used by Algeria to fight a proxy war against Morocco.

[edit] Polisario Front

The position of the Polisario Front is that Western Sahara is an occupied territory, the rightful government of which is the exiled Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).^[1] The Polisario Front calls for the right of self-determination of the people of Western Sahara to be decided through a referendum. Although the SADR is not recognised as a state by the UN, Polisario is considered as a direct party in the conflict. The SADR is a member of the African Union.

[edit] Algeria

Algeria has been supporting the independence of Western Sahara diplomatically since 1975. In 1976, Algeria got involved directly in the conflict, but after a military confrontation at Amgala against the Moroccan Army, the Algerian role became that of an indirectly involved party through political and military support to the Polisario front. Morocco argues that the Algerian position is due to the Sand War of 1963.

[edit] United Nations

Western Sahara was first listed on the UN list of territories to be decolonized when it was a Spanish colony in the 1960s by Moroccan demand, and it has retained that status since then due to the persistence of the conflict.^[2] The UN has been involved since 1988 to find a solution to the conflict through self-determination. In 1988, the kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front agreed to settle the dispute through a referendum under the auspices of the UN, that would allow the people of Western Sahara to chose between independence or integration with Morocco. In 1991, a ceasefire was agreed between the parties, contingent on the referendum being held the following year. Due to disputes over voter qualification, the vote has still not been held, and Morocco has made it clear in 2000 that henceforth it will not consider any option leading to the independence of the territory, and instead, is now proposing autonomy within Morocco. Lately, the UN has argued for negotiations between the parties to overcome the deadlock.

[edit] African Union

The African Union (formerly the Organization of African Unity) has given the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic full recognition,^[3] and accepted it as a member (which has led Morocco to leave the union,^[4] becoming the only African state outside of it.)

[edit] Recognition

The SADR is recognized by 44 states. Non-recognition of the Sahrawi republic does not necessarily imply non-recognition of the Polisario Front: several governments consider Polisario as the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, but not its exile government as a state. Several states have withdrawn their recognition of the SADR. Although Morocco claims that no recognition is required, Moroccan sovereignty over the territory is explicitly supported by the Arab League^[5][6] and by 25 states.

[edit] States recognizing the SADR

The following is a list of state governments that have formally recognized Western Sahara as a sovereign nation, with the exiled Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as its legitimate government.

The vast majority of recognitions took place during the cold war. Since the 1990s, many states have retracted their recognitions. Others have chosen a milder option, to suspend recognition pending the outcome of the referendum on self-determination.

• Forty-five recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Twelve of them are home to Sahrawi embassies.
• Thirteen have recognized the SADR but then suspended relations.
• Twenty-four have recognized the SADR but then withdrawn recognition.

State	Date of recognition	Notes
Madagascar	February 28, 1976	Froze recognition June 4, 2005
Burundi	March 1, 1976	Suspended recognition May 5, 2006[7]
Algeria	March 6, 1976	Embassy.[8]
Angola	March 11, 1976	Embassy.
Benin	March 11, 1976	Recognition withdrawn March 21, 1997
Mozambique	March 13, 1976	Embassy.
Guinea-Bissau	March 15, 1976	Relations suspended April 2, 1997; Relations resumed and embassy re-opened September 26, 2000.
North Korea	March 16, 1976
Togo	March 17, 1976	Withdrawn June, 1997[9]
Rwanda	April 1, 1976
Seychelles	October 25, 1977
Republic of Congo	June 3, 1978	Withdrawn September 13, 1996
São Tomé and Príncipe	June 22, 1978	Withdrawn October 23, 1996
Panama	June 23, 1978	Embassy[10]
Equatorial Guinea	November 3, 1978	Withdrawn May 1980
Tanzania	November 9, 1978	Embassy established June, 2005.[11]
Ethiopia	February 24, 1979	Embassy[12]
Vietnam	March 2, 1979
Cambodia	April 10, 1979	Withdrawn August 14, 2006[13]
Laos	May 9, 1979
Afghanistan	May 23, 1979	Withdrawn July 12, 2002
Cape Verde	July 4, 1979
Grenada	August 20, 1979
Ghana	August 24, 1979	Suspended May 2001
Guyana	September 1, 1979
Dominica	September 1, 1979	Suspended
Saint Lucia	September 1, 1979	Withdrawn March 1989
Jamaica	September 4, 1979
Uganda	September 6, 1979
Nicaragua	September 6, 1979	Suspended July 21, 2000,[1] but re-established January 12, 2007[2]
Mexico	September 8, 1979[14]	Embassy.[15]
Lesotho	October 9, 1979[16][17]
Zambia	October 12, 1979
Cuba	January 20, 1980	Embassy.[15]
Iran	February 27, 1980[3][18]
Sierra Leone	March 27, 1980	Suspended c. 2002-2003
Libya	April 15, 1980[19] [4]
Swaziland	April 28, 1980	Withdrawn June 1997
Botswana	May 14, 1980
Zimbabwe	July 3, 1980[5]
Chad	July 4, 1980	Withdrawn May 9, 1997 (Apparently re-started and then cancelled again March 18, 2006)[20]
Mali	July 4, 1980
Costa Rica	October 30, 1980	Suspended April 2000
Vanuatu	November 27, 1980	Withdrawn November 2000
Papua New Guinea	August 12, 1981
Tuvalu	August 12, 1981	Withdrawn September 15, 2000
Kiribati	August 12, 1981	Withdrawn September 15, 2000
Nauru	August 12, 1981	Withdrawn September 15, 2000
Solomon Islands	August 12, 1981	Withdrawn January, 1989
Mauritius	July 1, 1982
Venezuela	August 3, 1982	Embassy.[15]
Suriname	August 11, 1982
Bolivia	December 14, 1982
Ecuador	November 14, 1983	Withdrawn June 19, 2004; Relations resumed February 8, 2006.[21] [6]
Mauritania	February 27, 1984[22]
Burkina Faso	March 4, 1984	Withdrawn June 5, 1996
Peru	August 16, 1984	Suspended relations, October, 1996
Nigeria	November 12, 1984	Embassy.[23][7][8]
Yugoslavia (SFRY)	November 28, 1984[24]	Withdrawn by Serbia and Montenegro, October 28, 2004.
Colombia	February 27, 1985	Suspended December, 2000.
Liberia	July 31, 1985	Withdrawn September, 1997
India	October 1, 1985[25]	Withdrawn June 26, 2000
Guatemala	April 10, 1986	Suspended April, 1998. In 2002, denied ever recognizing SADR.[26]
Dominican Republic	June 24, 1986	Suspended on May 23, 2002
Trinidad and Tobago	November 1, 1986
Belize	November 18, 1986[9]
St. Kitts and Nevis	February 25, 1987
Antigua and Barbuda	February 27, 1987
Albania	December 29, 1987[24]	Withdrawn November 9, 2004
Barbados	February 27, 1988
El Salvador	July 31, 1989	Withdrawn April, 1997
Honduras	November 8, 1989	Suspended January 2000
Namibia	June 2, 1990[10][11]
Malawi	November 16, 1994	Withdrawn June 2001
Paraguay	February 9, 2000	Suspended June 25, 2000
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	February 14, 2002[27]
Timor-Leste	May 20, 2002[12]	First country to establish relations with East Timor.
South Africa	September 15, 2004	Embassy.[28][13]
Kenya	June 25, 2005[29]	Embassy.[30] Recognition suspended October 20, 2006[31]
Uruguay	December 28, 2005[32][33]
Haiti	November 23, 2006	Embassy.[14][15]

[edit] List of states supporting Moroccan claims on Western Sahara

While the sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sahara is not formally recognised by the UN and many other states as was stressed by the former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a report on Western Sahara to the Security Council,^[34] Morocco is considered as the administrative power,^[35] and except for the free trade agreement with the US, all international treaties with Morocco apply also to Western Sahara.^{[citation needed]}

While the recognitions are less important for Morocco than for the SADR, some UN member states have expressed explicit support of "Morocco's territorial integrity", in reference to Western Sahara as Moroccan provinces. This list is based on several sources and is incomplete, as many of the Arab world's closest allies of Morocco like Jordan and Saudi Arabia and many Gulf states that supported Morocco militarily in the conflict are not listed:

1. Argentina^[36]
2. Botswana^[37]
3. Cameroon^[38]
4. The Central Africa Republic^[39][16]
5. Chile^[40][17] *Chile has given contradictory comments regarding the Sahara. Chile's Senate speaker Sergio Romero has said that Chile does not recognize Western Sahara's independence [18],^[40] but Chile's Ministry of Foreign Relations website includes Western Sahara as an independent country with which Chile has no diplomatic relations.
6. The People's Republic of China^[41]
7. Colombia^[42]
8. Côte d'Ivoire^[43]
9. Egypt^[44]
10. Equatorial Guinea^[45]
11. Gabon^[46]
12. Guinea^[47]
13. Indonesia^[48]
14. Iraq^[49]
15. Kuwait^[50]
16. Libya^[51]
17. Madagascar^[52]
18. Malawi[19]
19. Peru^[53]
20. Senegal^[54]
21. Serbia^[55]
22. Swaziland[20]
23. Sudan^[56]
24. Vanuatu^[57]
25. Yemen^[58]

[edit] Other states

• United States - In a 2004 free trade agreement with Morocco, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick stated, "the United States and many other countries do not recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara .... The Free Trade Agreement will not include Western Sahara."^[1]

[edit] See also

• Foreign relations of Morocco
• Polisario

[edit] References

• Hodges, Tony. Western Sahara: Roots of a Desert War, Lawrence Hill & Company, 1983, ISBN 0882081527 , p. 308
• Hodges, Tony, and Pazzanita, Anthony. Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara, 2 ed., Scarecrow Press, 1994, ISBN 0810826615 , pp. 378-379.

[edit] External links

[edit] Tables of states recognizing the SADR

• World Statesmen
• Western Sahara On-line
• The SADR (Spanish)
• Lasonet.com (Spanish)
• Friends of the Sahara (Spanish)
• The Association for a Free and Fair Referendum in Western Sahara

[edit] Others

• Arabic News - Senegal supports Morocco's territorial integrity
• Balkan Peace - Serbia-Montenegro withdraws recognition of Sahara Republic
• Morocco Times - Sahara issue - Sudan supports Moroccan territorial integrity
• Arabic News - Morocco, Gabon voice resolve to enhance cooperation