UN 'Backs' Moroccan Plan While Ignoring Sahrawi Self-Determination
The UN Security Council, in its infinite wisdom, has again endorsed Morocco's autonomy plan for the 'disputed' Western Sahara. This comes mere years after the Trump administration, in a move widely seen as quid pro quo for Morocco normalizing relations with Israel, recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the territory. The 'dispute' isn't over Moroccan sovereignty; it's about the Sahrawi people's
right to self-determination, stalled since the 1991 ceasefire that promised a UN-supervised referendum—a promise never fulfilled. The MINURSO mission's mandate to organize that referendum has quietly shifted to merely monitoring the ceasefire, a classic UN bait-and-switch. How many internationally recognized rights need to be trampled before the UN acts? This 'backing' from the Security Council, a
body whose permanent members often champion self-determination only when strategically convenient, provides cover for ongoing occupation. It mirrors countless historical instances where global powers greenlight an occupier’s terms over the occupied's sovereignty. The Sahrawi people, like many others, are simply expected to accept a 'plan' for their future dictated by their occupiers and
rubber-stamped by an 'international community' that consistently fails to uphold its own principles. (Perhaps the UN should update their mission statement to explicitly exclude self-determination for inconvenient populations.)