Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
What Israel’s backing means in Western Sahara dispute
ISRAEL this past week voiced support for Morocco's autonomy proposal for Western Sahara after the countries’ foreign ministers met at an Israel-Arab summit on Sunday.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid hosted counterparts from four Arab countries in southern Israel.
Following his meeting with Nasser Bourita from Morocco, Lapid issued a statement that the countries would work together to counter “attempts to weaken Moroccan sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
Morocco considers the Western Sahara its own but an Algeria-backed independence movement demands a sovereign state.
Rabat says its 2007 proposal to offer Western Sahara autonomy within Morocco is the most it can propose as a political solution to the conflict.
Morocco’s foreign minister said on Monday his presence alongside three Arab counterparts at an Israeli-hosted summit was the “best response” to attacks such as an Islamic State-linked shooting spree in Israel, which he condemned as terrorism.
“Our presence today is, I think, the best response to such attacks,” Bourita told reporters.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Morocco for two days last week. This visit is part of a tour in the Middle East and North Africa.
Blinken met Bourita again after seeing him at an unprecedented meeting in the Neguev desert in Israel along with three ministers of Arab countries and Israel. The talks focused on bilateral and regional security, counter-terrorism operations in the Sahel and the economic impact of the conflict in Ukraine, such as the risk of wheat shortages. But the disputed region of Western Sahara should be at the top of the agenda.
In 2020, former US president Donald Trump said the territory was Moroccan and three weeks ago the US supported Rabat’s autonomy plan.
Israel is targeting an annual trade volume of $500million (R7.2billion) with Morocco, up from $131m currently as the two countries look to broaden co-operation since they normalised relations in 2020.
Orna Barbivai made the statement last month following talks in Rabat with Moroccan industry and trade minister Ryad Mezzour, with whom she signed a trade and investment co-operation deal. Under this deal, the
two countries commit to facilitating trade and investments in the aerospace, automobile, agri-food, textile and pharmaceutical industries in particular, Mezzour told reporters.
The agreement was part of the implementation of a deal to resume ties brokered by the Trump administration in 2020.
It’s no secret that Israel’s interest lies in signing an open military agreement with Morocco, to be another pillar strengthening its relations and position in the Middle East in the face of Iran, wrote researcher Dr Adnan Abu Amer. He said the army and Mossad are responsible for this and want to develop independent contact with the security forces in Morocco and expand their strategic military dialogue. Maybe Morocco also wants to confront Algeria, which supports the Polisario fighting for independence in Western Sahara.
He added that there was also an international diplomatic dimension.
“Morocco wants to show the Joe Biden administration in Washington its commitment to normalisation, in order to ensure the implementation of former US president Donald Trump’s decision regarding Western Sahara.”
However, reports reveal that there is clear public opposition in Morocco to normalisation with Israel. Organisations that raise funds for the Palestinians and raise awareness of their cause have an active lobby in the Moroccan parliament. For them, normalisation with Israel is treason.
After two years of diplomatic deadlock, UN secretary-general António Guterres has appointed a new envoy for Western Sahara, a territory disputed between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front, which represents the ethnic Sahrawi population of the territory, writes Crisis Group International’s Riccardo Fabiani.
“The recent designation of
seasoned Italian-Swedish diplomat Staffan de Mistura marks a much-delayed and critical step forward in a stand-off that, if left untreated, risks spreading instability elsewhere in the region.“
The International Crisis Group said the temperature has been rising of late in this often-overlooked conflict. In November 2020, fighting flared up between Morocco and the Polisario Front. A month later, Trump threw fuel on the fire and jeopardised the traditional US role as a neutral broker between the parties by recognising Moroccan sovereignty over the territory in exchange for Morocco normalising its relations with Israel.
In 2020, Morocco became the latest Arab League country to agree to normalise relations with Israel in a deal brokered with US help.
As part of the deal, the US has agreed to recognise Morocco’s claim over the disputed Western Sahara region.
Morocco is the fourth state to make such a deal with Israel since August.
Agreements have also been struck recently with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.
Western Sahara is listed by the UN as a non-decolonised territory and is thus included in the UN list of non-self-governing territories.