MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : ISRAEL DISAGREES WITH EU ABOUT WEST SAHARA

·         The recent violent end of the ceasefire in Western Sahara means the EU and the UN should pay renewed attention to resolving the longstanding conflict between the native Sahrawis and Morocco. 

·         Various peace-making efforts over the years have led the Sahrawis’ representative organisation, Polisario, to make concessions to Morocco. However, Morocco remains insistent on an autonomy option for the Sahrawis – not independence. 

·         The UN should pursue a “free association” option for Western Sahara – a third way that offers a realistic means of fulfilling Sahrawi self-determination. 

·         France, along with the US, should encourage this by removing their diplomatic protection for Morocco both within the EU and at the UN. 

·         Correctly aligning the EU’s political and trade relations will be vital to bringing this conflict to a close. It is in EU member states’ interest to ensure a stable southern neighbourhood. 

This year marks the anniversary of the creation of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). The mission was originally tasked with laying the groundwork for Sahrawi self-determination while monitoring a ceasefire between Morocco and Polisario – the Western Sahara national liberation movement. Yet, three decades later, the UN has little to show.  

In a new report -  Free to choose: A new plan for peace in Western Sahara  - by the European Council on Foreign Relations, authors Hugh Lovatt and Jacob Mundy argue that a diplomatic solution to the Western Sahara conflict is possible – one that can preserve each side’s core interests and fulfil the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination in a manner consistent with international law and political realism. But this will still require both sides to make concessions to get what they want.  

Drawing on interviews with serving and former officials, and with leading experts and academics, this paper argues that, at this critical juncture, European governments – including those with a seat on the UN Security Council – must urgently relaunch a viable UN-led peace process in the Western Sahara. In doing so, they should avoid repeating the mistakes of old.

 “For far too long, the UN peace process in Western Sahara has drifted aimlessly without a clear path forward, and now the ceasefire has broken down. To stop the situation from spiralling out of control, the people of Western Sahara will need to see credible, non-partisan engagement from the UN Security Council and EU countries”, highlights Jacob Mundy.

As Hugh Lovatt emphasises: “The European Union has a core interest in reaching a just and sustainable solution to the Western Sahara conflict. It can play an important role in supporting UN-led negotiations. But to do so, it will need to re-align its political and trade relations.”  

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Interviews:

The authors are available for comment and interview. Please contact Ana Ramic, ECFR’s head of communications, (ana.ramic@ecfr.eu) or ECFR’s communications team (communications@ecfr.eu) to arrange.

Further ECFR research on the Western Sahara:

·         How France and the US can work to stabilise the Sahel

·         After Cotonou: How Europe can forge new relations with Africa in 2021 

·         This time is different: Spain, Morocco, and weaponised migration

About the authors: 

Hugh Lovatt is a policy fellow with the Middle East and North Africa programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Since joining ECFR, he has advised European governments on the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process. Lovatt co-led a 2016 track II initiative to draft an updated set of final status parameters for ending the conflict, and pioneered the concept of ‘EU differentiation’, which was enshrined in UN Security Council Resolution 2334.

Jacob Mundy is a professor at Colgate University and is the co-author (with Stephen Zunes) of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution, a second edition of which will be published this year by Syracuse University Press. He has conducted field and archival work in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia, including the original research for the International Crisis Group’s reports on Western Sahara in 2005. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the Université de Tunis in 2018–2019.

About ECFR: 

The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is a pan-European think-tank that aims to conduct cutting-edge independent research in pursuit of a coherent, effective, and values-based European foreign policy. With a network of offices in seven European capitals, over 60 staff from more than 25 different countries and a team of associated researchers in the EU 27 member states, ECFR is uniquely placed to provide pan-European perspectives on the biggest strategic challenges and choices confronting Europeans today. ECFR is an independent charity and funded from a variety of sources. For more details, please visit: www.ecfr.eu.

The European Council on Foreign Relations does not take collective positions. This report, like all publications of the European Council on Foreign Relations, represents only the views of its authors.