Western Sahara
FILE - Demonstrators wave Moroccan flags during a protest in Paris on March 20, 2016, when the United States declared its support for the threatened U.N. peacekeeping mission in the disputed territory of Western Sahara after Morocco took steps to reduce its size and terminate $3 million in funding. France has recognized Morocco's sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, shifting a decades-held position and adding itself to a growing list of countries to back Morocco while a United Nations-mediated peace process remains stalled, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote in a letter made public on Tuesday, July 30, 2024.
As featured on
France has backed Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara, shifting a decades-old position and adding itself to a growing list of countries to align with Morocco as a United Nations-mediated peace process remains stalled. In a letter to King Mohammed VI on Tuesday, France’s President Emmanuel Macron called the autonomy plan that Morocco proposed in 2007 the “only basis” to solve the conflict, dealing a blow to the pro-independence Polisario Front. France’s departure from its historic position is a major victory for Morocco and follows similar shifts from the United States, Israel, Spain and a growing list of African nations with which Morocco aims to deepen trade ties.
