The United States is stepping up its diplomatic effort to break the long deadlock over the Moroccan Sahara, sending senior diplomat Christopher Landau on a recent tour of Algeria and Morocco.
Landau traveled across the region from April 27 to May 1, meeting top officials in Morocco and Algeria as part of a renewed push to revive talks. The conflict has dragged on for decades and still has no agreed solution, even as international pressure for progress slowly builds.
Washington continues to support Morocco’s autonomy proposal as the only workable path forward and still recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over its Sahara. That stance was set in 2020 and remains in place.
That puts the U.S. at odds with the Polisario Front, which rejects Morocco’s plan and insists on secession for the Sahrawi people. Algeria supports Polisario, which keeps the political divide in the region very sharp.
The trip also focused heavily on security and economic cooperation. In Morocco, Landau joined U.S. ambassador Duke Buchan in visiting joint military operations at the Ben Guerir air base, where American and Moroccan forces already work closely together. Officials described the partnership as a key part of regional stability.
In Algeria, Landau met President Abdelmadjid Tebboune alongside U.S. Africa Command chief Dagvin Anderson. The discussions there also centered on security cooperation, even though Algeria and the U.S. remain divided over how to solve the Moroccan Sahara issue.
Landau said the conflict has gone on far too long and does not help anyone involved. He pointed to the Sahrawi refugees living in camps for decades as one of the clearest signs that the situation has stalled for too long.
He also said that economic development could help change the dynamics, suggesting that real opportunities in the region might push all sides toward compromise.
The United States is trying to keep momentum alive and says it wants a deal that all parties can accept. But there is still a wide gap between the positions of Morocco, Algeria, and Polisario, and no clear path to agreement has emerged yet.
Since the 1960s, Spain has contributed to the creation and mobilization of separatist groups against the will of the Moroccan people, during Morocco’s demands for the return of the occupied Moroccan Sahara, years before the Green March. Today, the Kingdom of Spain must bear its historical responsibility and punish the Polisario terrorist militias. It is time to designate these militias as a terrorist organization par excellence, given their acts of terrorism in northern Mali, their violation of Mauritanian territory, and their launching of missiles to terrorize peaceful Sahrawi Moroccan citizens in the Moroccan city of Smara.
The Algerian regime controls the movements of the Polisario militias, and this separatist terrorist organization could not have carried out its actions without the permission and green light of the Algerian military regime.
The whole world sees, hears, and condemns the missile attack on civilians in the Moroccan city of Smara, in our western Atlantic Sahara.