Why the Polisario Front Threatens Morocco and the Region

More and more countries are coming to agree with this stance. The United Kingdom recently recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, joining the United States, France, and Israel. Even Syria has grown tired of the Polisario Front, the main separatist movement, expelling it from the country just days ago.

Polisario’s main backers are Algeria and Iran, with Syria’s new government now backing Morocco’s claim to the largely desert territory.

A report by Germany’s Die Welt revealed direct ties between the group and Iran-backed Hezbollah, including intercepted calls between Mustafa Muhammad Lemine Al-Kitab—Polisario’s Syria liaison—and a Hezbollah agent.

In these conversations, Al-Kitab expresses ideological solidarity with Iran’s axis of resistance, praising the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and envisioning a unified front that includes Gaza, the Golan Heights, Lebanon’s south, and even Western Sahara. He explicitly supports the idea of coordinated attacks on Israel involving Hamas, Hezbollah, Algeria, and Iran. While acknowledging Polisario’s limited capabilities, he solicits further assistance from Hezbollah and Iran to attack the Israeli embassy in Morocco.

Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita accused Iran of “arming extremist groups and separatist entities within the Arab region, including the Polisario Front, by supplying them with drones in an effort to “undermine security and stability in the region.” In 2022, a Polisario official said Iran would also supply them with kamikaze drones.

The group’s ties to extremism are well documented. Adnan Abu al-Walid al-Sahrawi, a former Polisario fighter, went on to lead the Islamic State in the Greater Sahel (ISGS) before being killed by French forces in Mali in 2021. In 2008, the Fath al-Andalus terror cell emerged from the Tindouf camps, followed by the “Khilafah” group in 2009, which pledged allegiance to ISIS. A German intelligence report noted that “ISIS and al-Qaeda operate freely in the Tindouf camps and the broader Sahel-Sahara region.”

It was Polisario that ended a 29-year ceasefire in 2020, and the group has carried out multiple attacks targeting Moroccan civilians since 2021. Polisario also has a long record of recruiting child soldiers. A Geneva-based NGO told the UN Human Rights Council that Polisario systematically blocks children from completing their education, forcing them into military training and combat.

Critics of Morocco’s control over Western Sahara want to roll back US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty, arguing that Washington should return to its 1991 stance, which supported a UN-backed referendum for the Sahrawis to decide who should rule them. It’s an argument that might have resonated in the 1990s, but today, it’s outdated and goes against America’s interests.