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The United Nations Security Council on Friday approved a resolution supporting Morocco’s sovereignty claim over Western Sahara, echoing the Trump administration’s position as the strongest ever international support for Rabat’s territorial control.
The resolution, proposed by the United States, passed with 11 votes in favor, but Russia, China and Pakistan abstained, and Algeria, which supports the pro-independence movement Polisario Front, did not vote.
The move marks a major shift in international support for Morocco’s decades-old claim to the phosphate-rich coastal desert.
“The United States welcomes today’s historic vote, which seizes this unique moment and builds momentum for long-awaited peace in Western Sahara,” said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Walz.
The draft resolution states that “genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty could be the most viable solution,” marking the first time that a Security Council mandate has explicitly supported Morocco’s desired outcome.
While renewing the UN peacekeeping operation for another year, it calls for a review within six months depending on progress.
President Trump backs Rabat’s ‘serious, credible and realistic’ proposal
US President Donald Trump supported Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara in a message to King Mohammed VI in July.
“The United States recognizes Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara and reiterates that we support Morocco’s serious, credible, and realistic autonomy proposal as the only basis for a just and durable solution to the conflict,” Trump said.
President Trump’s senior adviser for African affairs, Massad Boulos, reiterated US support for the Morocco plan in an interview with Sky News Arabia this week.
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff told CBS that an agreement between Morocco and Algeria could be reached within 60 days, although the two countries have not maintained diplomatic relations for four years.
This territory, a coastal desert the size of Italy, was under Spanish rule until 1975. The Polisario Front, an extremist political group based in a refugee camp in southwestern Algeria, claims representation for the indigenous Sahrawi people and demands a referendum on self-determination, including independence as an option.
Polisario said he would participate in any process aimed at “legitimizing Morocco’s illegal military occupation,” insisting that “peace can never be achieved by rewarding expansionism.” This week, demonstrations broke out in Algeria’s Saharawi refugee camp.
The 1991 ceasefire was intended to allow for a referendum on self-determination, but disputes over voter eligibility prevented it. Polisario pulled out of a ceasefire in 2020 after clashes near a road Morocco was paving toward Mauritania, but the United Nations described what the United Nations described as “low-level hostilities.”
UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura proposed partitioning Western Sahara in October, but neither side accepted the idea.
France, Spain, the UK and most EU member states support Morocco’s position, as do a growing number of African allies.
Rabat controls most of Western Sahara, except for a narrow area east of the Moroccan-built sand wall.
Saudi Arabia has transformed its territory with infrastructure projects such as a deep-sea port and 1,055 kilometers of highways, while keeping prices down with state subsidies.