US Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, during a press briefing on Thursday, October 17, declined to comment on the Biden administration’s position regarding the proposed partition of the Sahara between Morocco and the Polisario Front, a proposal put forward by UN Envoy Staffan de Mistura.
“I’m going to need to take that question back, only because, as you might imagine, I was entirely focused on the events in Gaza yesterday,” Miller said when asked whether the U.S. supports a partition of the Sahara.
When a journalist persisted, noting Miller’s extensive background as a scholar of the Sahara diplomacy and the Polisario, the US Department spokesperson responded, “I haven’t reviewed the action at all or discussed it with any of my colleagues, so let me take it back and provide you with an answer.”
Miller emphasized that what he knew about the proposal was the most recent one, which the journalist in turn noted that it was the same as the proposal made by former Secretary of State James Baker during his tenure as envoy. However, the US official reiterated that he “didn’t have any chance to look at the proposal at all or talk to his colleagues.”
The spokesperson reaffirmed that U.S. support for Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara remains consistent with the previous administration, emphasizing, “there has been no change in our policy.”
For context, Reuters reported this week that de Mistura proposed a partition of the Sahara territory between Morocco and the Polisario Front, arguing that the partition “could allow for the creation on one hand of an independent state in the southern part and, on the other hand, the integration of the rest of the territory as part of Morocco, with its sovereignty over it internationally recognized.”
However, neither Morocco nor the Polisario Front accepted the proposal, de Mistura noted.
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