THE United States adopted Saturday a “new official” map of Morocco that includes the disputed territory of Western Sahara, the ambassador to Rabat said.
“This map is a tangible representation of President Trump’s bold proclamation two days ago — recognizing Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara,” Ambassador David Fischer said according to a statement seen by AFP.
He then signed the “new official US government map of the kingdom of Morocco” at a ceremony at the US embassy in the capital Rabat.
The map will be presented to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, he added.
Western Sahara is a disputed and divided former Spanish colony, mostly under Morocco’s control, where tensions with the pro-independence Polisario Front have simmered since the 1970s.
Morocco on Thursday became the fourth Arab state this year, after the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, to announce it had agreed to normalize relations with Israel.
US President Donald Trump in turn fulfilled a decades-old goal of Morocco by backing its contested sovereignty in Western Sahara.
The Polisario condemned “in the strongest terms the fact that outgoing American President Donald Trump attributes to Morocco something which does not belong” to the country, namely sovereignty over Western Sahara.
The movement dismissed the announcement and vowed to fight on until Moroccan forces withdraw from all of Western Sahara.
The prime minister of Algeria — Morocco’s neighbor and regional rival, and the key foreign backer of the Polisario Front — on Saturday criticized “foreign maneuvers” that he said aimed to “destabilize Algeria.”
(SOURCE: Arab News)
