Former United Nations envoy Christopher Ross has once again exposed his impartiality in his latest commentary on the Sahara conflict in which he put forward an assessment reflecting long standing positions aligned with Algeria and the Polisario separatists, instead of viewing the dispute from the lenses of a neutral mediator.
In his recent analysis published by the International Center for Dialogue Initiatives, Ross gave agency to the Polisario separatists, internationally considered as an Algerian proxy used to unsettle Morocco.
He further reduced Algeria from its role as the main party perpetuating the conflict to a mere observer, in a view that is discredited by the latest UN Security Council resolution 2797 which mentions Algeria as a party to the conflict.
He also contended that Washington’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty undermines the United States’ ability to act as an impartial broker.
Ross repeatedly characterises Algeria and the Polisario as defenders of self‑determination while presenting Morocco’s legal and historical claims to the territory as marginal.
He questions the credibility of Rabat’s autonomy proposal, arguing that it remains incomplete.
Ross analysis vindicated Morocco’s complaints about his impartiality. Ross went further as to suggest that the Polisario militias should control phosphates, fisheries, mining and tourism, while framing Morocco’s management of those sectors as illegitimate.
Ross failed to recognize how Algeria prevented any progress towards the autonomy plan, worsening ties with any country that backs the plan and taking the Sahara issue as a matter of life and death for the military regime in Algiers, which now acts as the main party to the conflict overshadowing the Polisario proxies.
Ross has reduced himself through such an analysis to a blind lobbyist of a brutal Algerian regime that has been trading in the suffering of Sahrawis held in its territory in abject conditions in Polisario-run camps.
While Ross indulges in rehashing obsolete options such as organizing a referendum, the UN Security Council, the US administration and global powers and most of Africa recognize that this conflict has longlasted and that only autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty represents a win-win solution to end the conflict and spare the region more instability.