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Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony claimed and mostly administered by Morocco since Spain abandoned the territory in 1975-76, but sovereignty is unresolved and the United Nations is attempting to hold a referendum on the issue through the mission MINURSO. Part of the territory is controlled by the nationalist group the Polisario Front as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. A UN-administered cease-fire has been in effect since September 1991.

Positions of the parties

United Nations

The United Nations views Western Sahara as a case of incomplete decolonization , until the Sahrawi people are able to use their right of self-determination in the form of a referendum. This makes Western Sahara the last major remaining colony in the world.

African Union

The African Union (formerly the Organization of African Unity) has given the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic full recognition , and accepted it as a member (which has led Morocco to leave the union, becoming the only African country outside of it).

Kingdom of Morocco

The position of the Kingdom of Morocco is that all of Western Sahara is an integral part of the Kingdom. The Moroccan government refers to Western Sahara only as the "Sahara", "Moroccan Sahara", "Saharan provinces" or the "Southern Provinces". It often refers to a ruling in October 1975 by the UN's International Court of Justice in the Hague (Netherlands) as grounds for this claim. The Court had ruled that there had been ties of allegiance between the people of Western Sahara and the Sultan of Morocco but no ties of territorial sovereignty. Thus the Court stated that those legal ties don’t affect the principle of self determination of the peoples of the territory. The Polisario Front is considered a non-state actor and a separatist group.

Polisario Front

The position of the Polisario Front and other supporters of independence is that Western Sahara is an occupied territory, the rightful government of which is the exiled Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). The UN also considers Western Sahara an occupied territory, and a territory which should be decolonized, since the legal administrator of the territory still is Spain. Although the Sahrawi republic is not recognised as a member state in the UN, Polisario is recognized as the legal representative of the Sahrawi people.

Recognition

The SADR is recognized by 46 states (not including 22 states that have cancelled their earlier recognitions and 13 that have frozen their relations). For a list of these governments, see below. Non-recognition of the Sahrawi republic does not imply non-recognition of the Polisario Front: several governments acknowledge Polisario as the legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people, but not its exile government as a state.

Although Morocco claims that no recognition is required, Moroccan sovereignty over the territory is explicitly supported, but not recognized, formally by the Arab League and by 25 states. For a list of these governments, see below.

States recognizing the SADR

The following is a list of governments of the world that have formally recognized Western Sahara as a sovereign nation, with the exiled Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic as its legitimate government.

After recognizing an independent Western Sahara, some states have since retracted their recognitions. Others have chosen a milder option, to "freeze" recognition pending the outcome of the referendum on self-determination. If the results are in favor of independence, these governments will then resume the frozen contacts, while a government who has "cancelled" recognition (or never recognized Western Sahara), will not necessarily do so.

This list is based on several sources, and it may be incomplete. Currently, it contains 82 countries, and of these

  • 46 recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
  • 13 of these 46 are home to Sahrawi embassies.
  • 13 have "frozen" relations.
  • 23 have cancelled relations.

  • See also tables at *," target="_blank" >*," target="_blank" >[http://www.arso.org/03-2.htm.

State Date of recognition Notes
Madagascar February 28, 1976 Froze recognition June 4, 2005
Burundi March 1, 1976 Froze recognition May 5, 2006
Algeria March 6, 1976 Embassy.
Angola March 11, 1976 Embassy.
Benin March 11, 1976 Cancelled March 21, 1997
Mozambique March 13, 1976 Embassy.
Guinea-Bissau March 15, 1976 Cancelled April 2, 1997; re-opened embassy September 26, 2000.
North Korea March 16, 1976
Togo March 17, 1976 Cancelled June 1997 *
Rwanda April 1, 1976
South Yemen (PDRY and PRSY) February 2, 1977 Diplomatic recognition should have been cancelled by the government of the unified Republic of Yemen owing to its support to Morocco's territorial integrity including its southern provinces, see * and below.
Seychelles October 25, 1977
Republic of Congo June 3, 1978 Cancelled September 13, 1996
São Tomé and Príncipe June 22, 1978 Cancelled October 23, 1996
Panama June 23, 1978 Embassy.
Equatorial Guinea November 3, 1978 Cancelled May 1980
Tanzania November 9, 1978 Embassy established June 2005.
Ethiopia February 24, 1979 Embassy
Vietnam March 2, 1979
Cambodia April 10, 1979
Laos May 9, 1979
Afghanistan May 23, 1979 Cancelled July 12, 2002
Cape Verde July 4, 1979
Grenada August 20, 1979
Ghana August 24, 1979 Frozen May 2001
Guyana September 1, 1979
Dominica September 1, 1979 Frozen.
St. Lucia September 1, 1979 Cancelled March 1989
Jamaica September 4, 1979
Uganda September 6, 1979
Nicaragua September 6, 1979 Frozen July 21, 2000
Mexico September 8, 1979 Embassy.*
Lesotho October 9, 1979
Zambia October 12, 1979
Cuba January 20, 1980 Embassy.*
Iran February 27, 1980*
Sierra Leone March 27, 1980 Frozen c. 2002-2003
Syria April 15, 1980
Libya April 15, 1980 *
Swaziland April 28, 1980 Cancelled June 1997
Botswana May 14, 1980
Zimbabwe July 3, 1980*
Chad July 4, 1980 Cancelled May 9, 1997 (Apparently re-started and then cancelled again March 18, 2006)
Mali July 4, 1980
Costa Rica October 30, 1980 Frozen April 2000
Vanuatu November 27, 1980 Cancelled November 2000
Papua New Guinea August 12, 1981
Tuvalu August 12, 1981 Cancelled September 15, 2000
Kiribati August 12, 1981 Cancelled September 15, 2000
Nauru August 12, 1981 Cancelled September 15, 2000
Solomon Islands August 12, 1981 Cancelled January 1989
Mauritius July 1, 1982
Venezuela August 3, 1982 Embassy.
Suriname August 11, 1982
Bolivia December 14, 1982
Ecuador November 14, 1983 Cancelled June 19, 2004; reestablished February 8, 2006. *
Mauritania February 27, 1984
Burkina Faso March 4, 1984 Cancelled June 5, 1996
Peru August 16, 1984 Suspended relations, October 1996
Nigeria November 12, 1984 Embassy.**
Yugoslavia November 28, 1984 Cancelled by Serbia and Montenegro, October 28, 2004.
Colombia February 27, 1985 Frozen December 2000.
Liberia July 31, 1985 Cancelled September 1997
India October 1, 1985 Cancelled June 26, 2000
Guatemala April 10, 1986 Frozen April 1998. In 2002, denied ever recognizing SADR.
Dominican Republic June 24, 1986 Frozen on May 23, 2002
Trinidad and Tobago November 1, 1986
Belize November 18, 1986*
St. Kitts and Nevis February 25, 1987
Antigua and Barbuda February 27, 1987
Albania December 29, 1987 Cancelled November 9, 2004
Barbados February 27, 1988
El Salvador July 31, 1989 Cancelled April 1997
Honduras November 8, 1989 Frozen January 2000
Namibia June 2, 1990**
Malawi November 16, 1994 Cancelled June 2001
Paraguay February 9, 2000 Frozen 25 June 2000
St Vincent and the Grenadines February 14, 2002
East Timor May 20, 2002* First country to establish relations with East Timor.
South Africa September 15, 2004 Embassy.*
Kenya June 25, 2005 Embassy.
Uruguay December 28, 2005

List of countries supporting Moroccan claims on Western Sahara

No country has recognized the sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sahara, which the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan also stressed in his last report on Western Sahara to the Security Council:

"The Security Council would not be able to invite parties to negotiate about Western Saharan autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty, for such wording would imply recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, which was out of the question as long as no States Member of the United Nations had recognized that sovereignty".

Some UN member states have expressed support of "Morocco's territorial integrity", which can be interpreted as support of its claims over Western Sahara. However, this can also be an expression against separatism within the internationally recognized borders of Morocco. This list is based on several sources and may be incomplete:

  1. Argentina
  2. Botswana
  3. Cameroon
  4. The Central Africa Republic *
  5. Chile *Chile has given contradictory comments regarding the Sahara. Chile's Senate speaker Sergio Romero has said that Chile does not recognize Western Sahara's independence [http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/politics/chile_s_senate_speak/view, but Chile's Ministry of Foreign Relations website includes Western Sahara as an independent country with which Chile has no diplomatic relations.
  6. The People's Republic of China
  7. Colombia
  8. Côte d'Ivoire
  9. Egypt
  10. Equatorial Guinea
  11. Gabon
  12. Guinea
  13. Indonesia
  14. Iraq
  15. Kuwait
  16. Libya
  17. Madagascar
  18. Malawi*
  19. Peru
  20. Senegal
  21. Serbia and Montenegro
  22. Swaziland*
  23. Sudan
  24. Vanuatu
  25. Yemen

Other states

See also

References

Notes

Western Sahara | Foreign relations by country

Relazioni estere del Sahara Occidentale

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Foreign relations of Western Sahara".

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