The Algeria-based Polisario separatist militias have once again resorted to terrorist tactics by targeting a civilian area in Smara. The attack triggered a wave of international condemnations that highlights a growing strategic setback for the movement, as more countries rally behind Morocco’s approach to resolving the regional dispute.
The May 5 attack, which struck near civilian areas and injured at least one person, drew swift denunciations from the United States, France, the United Kingdom and the European Union, all warning that such actions threaten regional stability and undermine UN‑led peace efforts.
The incident highlights Algeria’s role in backing and offering its territorires as a rear base for a group using terrorist tactics. While Algiers presents itself as a defender of stability, its support for a separatist armed movement, in the Moroccan Sahara and the wider region, remains a central contradiction, increasingly exposed by events on the ground.
Arab states including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain condemned the attack as a “terrorist act,” expressing full solidarity with Morocco’s sovereignty.
Western powers echoed similar positions. In an apparent shift, Washington, Paris and London moved beyond calls for restraint to explicitly condemn the attack and reaffirm support for Morocco’s autonomy proposal as the basis for a political solution.
This convergence reflects a widening consensus that armed escalation, particularly when civilians are affected, runs counter to the diplomatic framework now shaping the file.
The attack vindicates the introduction by US lawmakers and Senate members of a bill that calls for designating the Algeria-backed militias as a terrorist group.
At the UN level, Security Council Resolution 2797 (2025) has further shifted dynamics, endorsing Morocco’s autonomy plan as the “most feasible” solution to the conflict.
In that sense, what was intended as a tactical demonstration by the Polisario has yielded the opposite effect of accelerating the very international alignment behind Morocco and increasing isolation of the Polisario and its mentor Algeria.
