Sahara: Spain Deals Hard Blow to the Polisario

Spanish Foreign Minister has just dealt a hard blow to the Polisario, saying he supports UN efforts to settle the Sahara conflict and European Union’s agreements with Morocco. He also affirmed that Spain has no legal or administrative responsibility in Western Sahara, deflating thus the Polisario’s claims.

The Spanish Socialist Government’s Foreign Minister, José Borrell, made it clear that Madrid has “no responsibility neither legal nor de facto” in the Sahara, rejecting thus the Algeria-backed Polisario’s allegations that Spain would be “an administering power in Western Sahara”.

Furthermore, the Spanish official affirmed support to the efforts of the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, and his personal envoy for the Sahara, Horst Köhler, seeking to reach a realistic political solution to the Sahara conflict.

He added that he defends and supports the EU’s agreements with Morocco, alluding to the Farm and Fisheries Agreements that cover the Moroccan Sahara. The agreements renewal is to be finalized in November.

“Spain is not an administering Power, it is not considered an administering power in the annual resolutions of the General Assembly, nor does it appear as an administrative power in the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories of the UN. It is important to know what our responsibilities are regarding this territory,” José Borrell said.

“I met Algerians, Moroccans and we support the efforts of the Secretary-General. This is practically the best, if not the only thing we can do,” said the Spanish Foreign Ministry.

Moroccan news website le360 noted that the Spanish Foreign Minister did not mention the Polisario in his remarks, citing rather Algeria, which is the party to the conflict.

José Borrell’s remarks come just days after the main Spanish parties, PSOE (in power), People’s Party (PP, right), Ciudadanos (center-right), blocked an initiative of the extreme left party Podemos, which wanted to organize a pro-Polisario meeting early November in the “Constitutional Hall” of the Congress of Deputies (lower house of the Spanish parliament).

Majority and opposition parties have all opposed the initiative, arguing that the headquarters of the lower house are not a venue for such meetings not to speak of the possible consequences of this initiative on Spanish foreign policy, the e-journal vozpopuli.com had reported.

These developments confirm Spain’s firm rejection of any Algerian-Polisario maneuver intended to sow confusion on the eve of the vote Monday (October 29) of a new resolution on the Sahara by the Security Council.