Who should control Western Sahara?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S decision in December to recognise Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara—in return for Morocco’s decision to establish diplomatic relations with Israel—has turned up the heat on a conflict that has been simmering for four decades. On Twitter, Mr Trump announced that “Morocco recognized the United States in 1777. It is thus fitting we recognize their sovereignty over the Western Sahara.” But the annexation is not accepted by most countries, nor by the Polisario Front, which fought Morocco for control of the territory from 1975 to 1991. Polisario, which still controls a third of Western Sahara, is recognised by the United Nations as the legitimate representative of the indigenous Sahrawi people. So, who should control Western Sahara?

Once known as Spanish Sahara, the area was the last vestige of Spain’s colonial empire. When Spanish troops withdrew in 1975, it became a battlefield with Morocco, Mauritania and Polisario laying claim to the area, rich in lucrative phosphate deposits and fish stocks. Although Mauritania long ago gave up on its claim, withdrawing from the territory in 1979, these economic interests remain an important part of what drives the conflict. Morocco asserts a historical right to control the region dating back to before the Spanish arrived. But the Sahrawi people insist that they have largely governed themselves for hundreds of years, roaming the desert as nomads with ties to no kingdom or state besides their own tribal allegiances. Neither the 16 years of fighting, nor the last 30 years of ceasefire and talks between Morocco and Polisario, has resolved anything.