US prepares classified briefing on Polisario as terror designation push builds

A senior State Department counterterrorism official said Tuesday the United States has opened a classified intelligence review into Polisario Front links to Iran-aligned groups, as pressure builds in Congress to designate the movement a terrorist organisation.

“I am tracking the allegations regarding engagement with Hezbollah and the IRGC,” Monica Ager Jacobsen, a senior State Department counterterrorism official, told a Senate subcommittee hearing. “Our teams are working to set up a classified briefing where we can speak more at length about those potential concerns.”

Speaking at the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, Jacobsen made clear that what can be said publicly remains limited.

“ We share concerns about the Polisario Front and its impact in the CT space. What I can say with confidence in an open hearing is that the region where the Polisario Front operates sits near trafficking and militant activity in the Sahel, and that this creates vulnerabilities that external actors, including Iran, could seek to exploit. So we are closely monitoring the situation, and we’re vigilant to those threats,” she said.

Morocco first publicly accused Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of supporting the Polisario Front in 2018, inclduing weapons transfers and military training facilitated through Iran’s embassy in Algeria, a dispute that led Rabat to sever diplomatic ties with Tehran.

Since then, claims of links between the Polisario and Iran-aligned groups have resurfaced periodically in political and security discussions.

Senator Ted Cruz used the hearing to renew calls for such a designation, arguing that the group should be classified as a terrorist organisation if evidence shows cooperation with Iranian-linked actors.

“In the Western Sahara, Iran is actively working to turn the Polisario Front into the Houthis for West Africa,” Cruz said, alleging the group receives drones and facilitates the movement of weapons across the region.

Cruz has introduced legislation that would require the US administration to designate the Polisario Front if it is found to be engaged in joint military activity, intelligence sharing or weapons transfers with Iranian groups.

“If the Polisario Front is providing or receiving those elements with Iranian terrorists, they straightforwardly qualify,” he said.