The attack carried out against civilians in Smara in the Moroccan Sahara is a "state terrorism" committed by Algeria against Morocco, said Abdellatif Ouahbi, the Moroccan Minister of Justice, at the 111th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) of the UN which was held on Wednesday and Thursday in Geneva.
The spokesperson for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, reaffirmed Washington’s support for Morocco’s autonomy plan for the Sahara, which is considered "realistic" and "credible".
The Sahara issue risks exacerbating tensions between Morocco and Algeria, an ally of the Polisario. The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since 2021.
The Moroccan army would have destroyed with an armed drone a Grad rocket launcher of the Polisario Front, with which the militiamen of the separatist movement were preparing to carry out an attack in the Moroccan Sahara.
After the explosions that occurred in the city of Smara , in the Sahara at the end of October, the Polisario, protected by Algeria, would be behind the attack on Tamegroute, a small tourist town famous for its pottery and dunes, located about twenty kilometers from Zagora.
The tensions between Morocco and France must be eased to allow the rapid relaunch of bilateral relations between the two countries, analyzes the Omega Center for Economy and Geopolitics think tank.
A cloud of Saharan sand will reach Belgium. This phenomenon "will be added to a pollution episode, and can sometimes constitute a significant part of the episode," warn meteorologists.
The French ambassador to Morocco, Christophe Lecourtier, announced "new developments" regarding his country’s position on the Sahara, reiterating France’s "historic" support for Morocco in this conflict.
Mohamed El Ouali Akeik, the highest military chief of the Polisario Front, is currently in the Basque Country in Spain to undergo medical treatment. Unlike the 2021 hospitalization in Spain of Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Sahrawi independence movement, the stay of the military leader does not seem to irritate Morocco.
After failing to mention the conflict in the Sahara in the coalition government agreement signed at the end of October with the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), the Sumar party, led by Yolanda Diaz, wanted to make up for it by signing an informal agreement with the Polisario to defend the interests of the Sahrawi independence movement during the next legislature.
Revelations have been made about Iran’s support for the Polisario, protected by Algeria, which continues to claim the independence of the Sahara, but also about Tehran’s expansionist approach in North Africa.
In an interview, Xavier Bertrand, president of the Hauts-de-France region (Les Républicains), deplores the lasting disaffection between Paris and Rabat due to France’s Algerian tropism.