With a crucial United Nations Security Council deadline approaching this October and a new resolution on the Sahara dispute due to be put to a vote, US diplomacy is turning up the pressure. A recent message posted on X by Mike Waltz, a key figure in US foreign policy and Washington’s representative to the UN, following a meeting with representatives of the Polisario Front, illustrates Washington’s continued determination to bring this regional dispute to a definitive end.
By stating that “the refugees in the Tindouf camps have been waiting for 50 years” and that “they deserve real options, not another decade of waiting when the basis for a solution is on the table,” the United States is sending an unequivocal message. The status quo is no longer tenable, and Morocco’s autonomy plan is the only realistic way forward.
The latest statement is directly in line with Washington’s official position, repeatedly reaffirmed by successive US administrations. The United States recognizes Morocco’s full sovereignty over its Sahara, as established by Donald J. Trump’s presidential proclamation of December 2020. Washington regularly describes Morocco’s autonomy plan as a “serious, credible and realistic” proposal and the sole basis for a just and lasting solution. Through statements by senior officials such as Mike Waltz, the US administration is also emphasizing the human dimension, denouncing the exploitation of populations held captive in the Tindouf camps and the dead end of an outdated separatist project.
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As the penholder on United Nations Security Council resolutions concerning the Moroccan Sahara, the United States leads the drafting and negotiation of the texts adopted each October. That strategic position gives Washington a direct role in shaping the UN’s diplomatic approach to the issue. The United States has worked to ensure that successive resolutions reinforce the primacy of Morocco’s autonomy initiative. As penholder, it has ensured that the resolutions call for a realistic, pragmatic, enduring and compromise-based political solution, effectively sidelining the Polisario’s obsolete and untenable positions.
Waltz’s statement comes at a highly strategic moment: on the eve of the Security Council’s adoption of its new October resolution on the Sahara. The latest resolution, which established autonomy as the only solution to the regional dispute, called for the round-table process to resume and stressed the active participation of all parties, including Algeria, as a principal party responsible for both the origins and the persistence of the dispute. As the new vote approaches, US pressure is intended to weigh directly on the discussions in New York. The aim is to tighten the screws on the Polisario and its backers, forcing them to abandon their obstructionist stance before the terms of MINURSO’s new mandate—or status—are drawn up.
In line with UN efforts and driven by US diplomacy, sustained attempts have been made since the last resolution to break the deadlock and revive dialogue. The United States has repeatedly confronted Algeria with its regional responsibilities, pressing it to participate directly in the discussions. Working sessions and intensive consultations have been conducted, notably through active diplomatic channels in Madrid and Washington, in an effort to bring the Polisario and its Algerian patron back to reason.
Today, faced with the sterile intransigence of the Polisario leadership, US pressure is becoming more direct, demanding that it finally accept the offer of autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty.
Washington’s pressure comes amid a broad groundswell of international support for Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara. More than 100 countries around the world support Moroccan sovereignty over the territory, while around 30 nations have opened consulates general in Laayoune and Dakhla, aligning themselves with Morocco’s vision. The Polisario’s growing isolation has recently been compounded by firm positions from major Latin American countries, once a stronghold of support for separatism, including Colombia and Chile, which have declared their support for the Kingdom’s territorial integrity.
Against this backdrop, and as the crucial October deadline at the United Nations approaches, the United States is reaffirming its leading role. By combining the authority of the UN penholder, its denunciation of the humanitarian tragedy in Tindouf and its demand that the Polisario embrace Morocco’s autonomy plan, Washington is signalling that the era of separatism is drawing to a close, clearing the way for lasting regional stability built on realism and Moroccan legitimacy.
