Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara backed by visit of French minister

French Culture Minister Rachida Dati began a visit on Monday to disputed Western Sahara where she will meet officials and open a French cultural centre in what is clearly a show of support for Moroccan sovereignty over the desert territory, Reuters has reported.

The long-frozen conflict, dating back to 1975, pits Morocco, which considers the region to be its own, against the Algerian-backed Polisario Front independence movement. French support for Rabat over the Western Sahara issue irks Algeria.

“This is a strong symbolic and political moment,” Dati told Moroccan reporters. Her nation in July became the second permanent UN Security Council member after the US to back Morocco’s position.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited Rabat in October and told parliament in Morocco’s capital that Western Sahara is Moroccan. His foreign minister promised to expand France’s consular presence to include the territory.

Economic deals worth over $10 billion were signed during the presidential visit, following which Morocco mediated the release of four French spies held in Burkina Faso.

Morocco has also won backing from Western Sahara’s former colonial power Spain, as well as Israel and more than two dozen African and Arab nations.

The Polisario in 2020 withdrew from a UN-brokered truce, but the conflict remains one of low intensity.

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