France supports Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara

France supports Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara, causing a setback for Algeria's Polisario Front.
Algeria has withdrawn its ambassador to France in response to the shift in France's stance.
President Emmanuel Macron referred to Morocco's autonomy proposal as the basis for resolving the issue.

As reported by France24, the president of France Emmanuel Macron, in an open letter to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, referred to Morocco's 2007 proposal for establishing a limited autonomy for Western Sahara under its sovereignty as the "only basis" for resolving the issue.

This underlines France's new stance on the dispute over who controls the region.

France, in hindsight, has accepted Morocco's autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara, overturning a decades-old disposition and joining an expanding group of countries such as the United States, Israel, and Spain supporting Morocco in a bid to deepen bi-lateral trade ties.

“The present and future of Western Sahara fall within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty,” Macron relayed via the letter.

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“France intends to act consistently with this position at both national and international level,” he added.

This comes as a huge blow to the pro-independence Polisario Front, which has long claimed to be the legal representative of the indigenous Saharawi people.

The dispute between the Algerian-backed, pro-independence Polisario Front, and Morocco over Western Sahara, dates back to 1975, when the Moroccan government executed the Green March as Spain prepared to leave from its northwest African region as part of the decolonization process.

Since then France has been careful not to step on either party’s shoes.

Algeria’s response

In reaction to France's shift in its stance, Algeria has decided to remove its ambassador to France.

"The Algerian diplomatic representation in France is now the responsibility of a charge d'affaires," the Algerian foreign ministry was quoted as saying by the official news agency APS. The ministry denounced Macron's statement as a "step that no other French government had taken before."

“Whatever hardships Morocco tries to impose on us with the support of France, the Sahrawi people will continue to stubbornly defend their rights until they obtain the definitive departure of the Moroccan aggressor from their territory and general recognition of the legitimacy of their struggle for self-determination and independence,” Sidati, the Foreign Minister of the self-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, said in a statement on Monday.