Released:
Tuesday, March 22, 2022 12:54 p.m
the Change in the position of the Spanish government now in support of Morocco on the Western Sahara Autonomy has aroused interest North Africa area. Who owns this area is located in coasts of the Atlantic Ocean?
Western Sahara is largely controlled by Morocco. On the other hand, its eastern edge is in the hands of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguía elHamra and Río de Oro (Polisario Front), a Sahrawi independence movement that has been fighting for independence and for the process of selfdetermination since its foundation in 1973.
It should be noted that until 1975 Western Sahara was administered by Spain, which ceded this small area of North Africa to Morocco and Mauritania. Then Mauritania withdrew, Morocco expanded its occupation zone, so Your government considers Western Sahara to be under its sovereignty.
The UN doesn’t say that because it takes this area into account one of the seventeen nonselfgoverning territories overseen by the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonizationas collected International amnesty. In fact, this international community does not accept the cession agreements of this territory, considering that in different resolutionsWhat their future can only be decided through a process of selfdetermination among its inhabitants, which among the choices includes that of independence.
What is the relationship between Western Sahara and Spain?
Western Sahara belonged to Spain. in this area more than 1,700 Spanish citizens lived. How long has Spain ruled Western Sahara?
Since 1884, when the European countries divided Africa at the Berlin conference. Then Spain claimed those 160,000 miles near the Canary Islands. Later, in the 1950s, Francisco Franco’s regime realized that there was fishing and phosphates in the area and wanted to take advantage of them. Evidence of this is that in November 1950 the dictator visited El Aaiún with his wife Carmen Polo.
Finally in 60 came the end of colonialism. France, Belgium and the United Kingdom left Africa, and at the same time the United Nations informed Spain that the Sahara was an area to be decolonized. So in In 1976, the Spanish colonial authorities left the area due to the Morocco Green March. It is the name of the moment when thousands of Moroccans marched into the Sahara before Spanish troops fled. Then they signed “The Tripartite Madrid Accords in which Spain ceded the Sahara to Morocco and Mauritania.
According to testimonies from this period in the special of the province 53, Twenty days earlier, in Western Sahara, the King of Spain assured that Spain would not abandon the people Saharawi until he became addicted. Here’s how the locals remember the day:
At this moment The war between the Moroccan Army and the Polisario Front began in which Rabat managed to occupy 80% of the territory. By doing Western Sahara is currently divided in two, with a Moroccan Wall of more than 2,700 km in mined area to protect the occupied territory. However, thousands of Sahrawis do not live in their country, they live poorly in refugee camps in Algeria.
Why is Western Sahara so important to the rest of the powers?
Western Sahara hides many economic interests. As we previously commented, Franco recognized that. This area of about 66,000 square kilometers has the largest phosphate mines in the world, large fish beds and reserves of gas, oil and uranium.
What is Spain’s position on Western Sahara?
Spain is no longer neutral in the Western Sahara conflict. That assured Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares The Executive supports Morocco in examining its proposal in relation to Western Sahara have “the most serious, credible and realistic basis for settling this dispute”. The Spanish government therefore endorses the Autonomy initiative presented by Morocco in 2007.
What is Morocco’s autonomy plan?
After the autonomy plan for Western Saharathis area in North Africa would have its own legislature, executive and judiciary. However, the opinions are all of them should correspond to the national criteria.
the Document presented by Morocco to the UN in 2007 consider that the The state would cede certain competences in questions of the economy, infrastructure, social development and culture to the “autonomous region”.. But other areas like Defence, foreign relations or religion would fall under the control of King Mohamed VI.
For its part, the Polisario Front sees no solution to the conflict other than a Referendum on selfdetermination.