Polisario Says Conflict to End when Morocco Ends 'Occupation'

The pro-independence Polisario Front on Monday said the conflict in Western Sahara would only end when Morocco ends its "occupation" of the disputed territory.

"The end of the war is now linked to the end of the illegal occupation of parts of the territory of the Sahrawi Republic," said senior Polisario official Mohamed Salem Ould Salek.

"The war only started as a consequence of Morocco's aggression and action in Guerguerat," said Ould Salek, who is foreign minister of the Polisario-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).

Morocco launched a military operation on Friday to reopen a key highway at the Guerguerat border crossing between the territory and Mauritania that it said had been blocked by the Polisario.

The Algerian-backed Polisario, which does not recognize the existence of the road, responded by declaring the end of an almost three-decade UN-supervised ceasefire in Western Sahara.

But on Monday Ould Salek called for the full implementation of the 1991 ceasefire as a condition for a stop to the hostilities.

He was referring to a referendum on self-determination set out in the ceasefire deal that the Polisario has been constantly demanding over the past 30 years.

The vote has been repeatedly postponed due to disputes between Rabat and the Polisario over voter rolls and the question to be put on the ballot.

Morocco says it is still committed to the ceasefire.

Meanwhile, the Moroccan official news agency MAP said late Sunday that Rabat's military had responded to fire by the Polisario Front along the UN-patrolled buffer zone.

"Since 13 November 2020, Polisario militias have fired provocative shots along the line of defense without causing human or material damage," MAP said, citing the Far-Maroc unofficial website dedicated to military news.

The retaliatory fire from the Moroccans destroyed an armored vehicle east of the line of defense at El Mahbes, it said on its Facebook page.

On Sunday the Polisario said that intense fighting was continuing along the 2,700-kilometre Moroccan wall of defense that cuts through Western Sahara.

It also announced that it was mobilizing "thousands of volunteers" to join Polisario Front fighters.

The territory is tough to travel through and the Moroccan authorities do not allow journalists access, making it difficult to verify reports from either side.

Rabat controls around three quarters of the Western Sahara, a vast swathe of desert on the Atlantic coast, including its phosphate deposits and its lucrative ocean fisheries. The Polisario controls the remainder.

Morocco maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom and has offered autonomy for the disputed territory, but insists it will retain sovereignty.

Negotiations involving Morocco, Polisario, Algeria and Mauritania have been at a standstill since 2019.