The Biden administration has rejected a proposal by American pro-Polisario Senator, Jack Reed, to make funding for military cooperation programs with Morocco conditional on “its agreement to reach peace with Western Sahara.”
The White House responded, saying that this request could negatively impact the commitments of the Department of Defense, including the diplomatic aspect of its cooperation with its international partners.
The administration explained that the proposal may prevent the Department of Defense from properly carrying out the mission of “providing assistance to foreign parties, in accordance with US foreign policy priorities.”
Despite there being no direct mention of Morocco from the US administration’s response, the response bears the number of the amendment article on the Kingdom.
Democratic Party senator Reed introduced the proposal back in October of this year, as part of his committee’s involvement in the review of the US national defense budget for 2022.
Reed’s amendment to the DOD finance bill was to “prohibit the use of funds to support the military forces of the Kingdom of Morocco during bilateral or multilateral exercises.”
The amendment would have cut US military funding, aid, and cooperation with Morocco, pending Morocco’s decision to “take steps to support a final peace agreement with Western
Sahara.”
The amendment also mentioned the Secretary of defense can waive the prohibition, “if such participation is determined to be important to the national security interests of the United States.”
The latter was the obvious choice of the Biden administration, who stated in its response that such measures are inconsistent with US foreign policy priorities.
Morocco has held the status of a major US ally outside NATO since June 2004. In addition to this status, both countries signed a ten-year military cooperation agreement in Rabat back in October 2020.
Rabat and Washington had already initiated the preparation of the next edition of the African Lion military exercise, in Agadir, as bilateral relations between the two countries seem to flourish.
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