Foreign relations of Western Sahara

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Sahrawi Republic

This article is part of the series: Politics and government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

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

Contents 1 Positions of the parties 1.1 United Nations 1.2 African Union 1.3 Kingdom of Morocco 1.4 Polisario Front 2 Recognition 3 States recognizing the SADR 4 List of states supporting Moroccan claims on Western Sahara 5 Other states 6 See also 7 References 8 External links 8.1 Tables of states recognizing the SADR 8.2 Others

[edit] Positions of the parties

[edit] United Nations

The United Nations views Western Sahara as a case of incomplete decolonization^[1], until the Sahrawi people are able to use their right of self-determination in the form of a referendum. This makes Western Sahara one of the last major remaining colonies in the world; it is on the United Nations' list of non-self-governing territories.

[edit] African Union

The African Union (formerly the Organization of African Unity) has given the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic full recognition^[2], and accepted it as a member (which has led Morocco to leave the union^[3], becoming the only African state outside of it.)

[edit] 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 International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on Western Sahara of 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.^[4] The Polisario Front are considered a non-state actor and a separatist group, and the SADR a puppet state for Algeria to fight a proxy war with Morocco.

[edit] 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.^[5] 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.

[edit] Recognition

The SADR is recognized by 43 states. 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. Several states have withdrawn their recognition of the SADR; the SADR's position is that once it is recognized, it cannot be said to no longer exist as long as the status quo remains. Although Morocco claims that no recognition is required, Moroccan sovereignty over the territory is explicitly supported, but not recognized, formally by the Arab League^{[6] [7]} and by 25 states.

[edit] States recognizing the SADR

The following is a list of state governments 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 suspend recognition pending the outcome of the referendum on self-determination. If the results are in favor of independence, these governments will then resume their contacts, while a government who has withdrawn 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 states, and of these

• Forty-three recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. eleven of them are home to Sahrawi embassies.
• Fourteen have suspended relations.
• Twenty-four have withdrawn recognition.

State	Date of recognition	Notes
Madagascar	February 28, 1976	Froze recognition June 4, 2005
Burundi	March 1, 1976	Suspended recognition May 5, 2006[8]
Algeria	March 6, 1976	Embassy[9].
Angola	March 11, 1976	Embassy.
Benin	March 11, 1976	Recognition withdrawn March 21, 1997
Mozambique	March 13, 1976	Embassy.
Guinea-Bissau	March 15, 1976	Relations suspended April 2, 1997; Relations resumed and embassy re-opened September 26, 2000.
North Korea	March 16, 1976
Togo	March 17, 1976	Withdrawn June, 1997 [10]
Rwanda	April 1, 1976
South Yemen (PDRY and PRSY)	February 2, 1977	Diplomatic recognition likely withdrawn by the government of the unified Republic of Yemen owing to its support to Morocco's territorial integrity[11] including its "southern provinces."
Seychelles	October 25, 1977
Republic of Congo	June 3, 1978	Withdrawn September 13, 1996
São Tomé and Príncipe	June 22, 1978	Withdrawn October 23, 1996
Panama	June 23, 1978	Embassy [12]
Equatorial Guinea	November 3, 1978	Withdrawn May 1980
Tanzania	November 9, 1978	Embassy established June, 2005.[13]
Ethiopia	February 24, 1979	Embassy [14]
Viet Nam	March 2, 1979
Cambodia	April 10, 1979	Withdrawn August 14, 2006[15]
Laos	May 9, 1979
Afghanistan	May 23, 1979	Withdrawn July 12, 2002
Cape Verde	July 4, 1979
Grenada	August 20, 1979
Ghana	August 24, 1979	Suspended May 2001
Guyana	September 1, 1979
Dominica	September 1, 1979	Suspended
Saint Lucia	September 1, 1979	Withdrawn March 1989
Jamaica	September 4, 1979
Uganda	September 6, 1979
Nicaragua	September 6, 1979	Suspended July 21, 2000
Mexico	September 8, 1979[16]	Embassy.[17]
Lesotho	October 9, 1979[18][19]
Zambia	October 12, 1979
Cuba	January 20, 1980	Embassy.[17]
Iran	February 27, 1980[1][20]
Sierra Leone	March 27, 1980	Suspended c. 2002-2003
Syria	April 15, 1980	Cancelled in 2001 [21]
Libya	April 15, 1980 [22] [2]
Swaziland	April 28, 1980	Withdrawn June 1997
Botswana	May 14, 1980
Zimbabwe	July 3, 1980[3]
Chad	July 4, 1980	Withdrawn May 9, 1997 (Apparently re-started and then cancelled again March 18, 2006)[23]
Mali	July 4, 1980
Costa Rica	October 30, 1980	Suspended April 2000
Vanuatu	November 27, 1980	Withdrawn November 2000
Papua New Guinea	August 12, 1981
Tuvalu	August 12, 1981	Withdrawn September 15, 2000
Kiribati	August 12, 1981	Withdrawn September 15, 2000
Nauru	August 12, 1981	Withdrawn September 15, 2000
Solomon Islands	August 12, 1981	Withdrawn January, 1989
Mauritius	July 1, 1982
Venezuela	August 3, 1982	Embassy.[17]
Suriname	August 11, 1982
Bolivia	December 14, 1982
Ecuador	November 14, 1983	Withdrawn June 19, 2004; Relations resumed February 8, 2006.[24] [4]
Mauritania	February 27, 1984[25]
Burkina Faso	March 4, 1984	Withdrawn June 5, 1996
Peru	August 16, 1984	Suspended relations, October, 1996
Nigeria	November 12, 1984	Embassy.[26][5][6]
Yugoslavia (SFRY)	November 28, 1984 [27]	Withdrawn by Serbia and Montenegro, October 28, 2004.
Colombia	February 27, 1985	Suspended December, 2000.
Liberia	July 31, 1985	Withdrawn September, 1997
India	October 1, 1985[28]	Withdrawn June 26, 2000
Guatemala	April 10, 1986	Suspended April, 1998. In 2002, denied ever recognizing SADR.[29]
Dominican Republic	June 24, 1986	Suspended on May 23, 2002
Trinidad and Tobago	November 1, 1986
Belize	November 18, 1986[7]
St. Kitts and Nevis	February 25, 1987
Antigua and Barbuda	February 27, 1987
Albania	December 29, 1987[27]	Withdrawn November 9, 2004
Barbados	February 27, 1988
El Salvador	July 31, 1989	Withdrawn April, 1997
Honduras	November 8, 1989	Suspended January 2000
Namibia	June 2, 1990[8][9]
Malawi	November 16, 1994	Withdrawn June 2001
Paraguay	February 9, 2000	Suspended June 25, 2000
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	February 14, 2002[30]
Timor-Leste	May 20, 2002[10]	First country to establish relations with East Timor.
South Africa	September 15, 2004	Embassy.[31][11]
Kenya	June 25, 2005[32]	Embassy.[33] Recognition suspended October 20, 2006 [34]
Uruguay	December 28, 2005[35] [36]

[edit] List of states supporting Moroccan claims on Western Sahara

No state 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".^[37]

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 ^[38]
2. Botswana ^[39]
3. Cameroon ^[40]
4. The Central Africa Republic ^[41][12]
5. Chile^[42][13] *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 [14]^[42], 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 ^[43]
7. Colombia^[44]
8. Côte d'Ivoire^[45]
9. Egypt^[46]
10. Equatorial Guinea^[47]
11. Gabon^[48]
12. Guinea^[49]
13. Indonesia^[50]
14. Iraq^[51]
15. Kuwait^[52]
16. Libya^[53]
17. Madagascar^[54]
18. Malawi[15]
19. Peru^[55]
20. Senegal^[56]
21. Serbia^[57]
22. Swaziland[16]
23. Sudan^[58]
24. Vanuatu^[59]
25. Yemen^[11]

[edit] Other states

• United States - In a 2004 free trade agreement with Morocco, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick stated, "the United States and many other countries do not recognise Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara .... The Free Trade Agreement will not include Western Sahara."^[5]

[edit] See also

• Foreign relations of Morocco
• Polisario

[edit] References

• Hodges, Tony. Western Sahara: Roots of a Desert War, Lawrence Hill & Company, 1983, ISBN 0-88208-152-9, p. 308
• Hodges, Tony, and Pazzanita, Anthony. Historical Dictionary of Western Sahara, 2 ed., Scarecrow Press, 1994, ISBN 0-8018-2661-5, pp. 378-379.

[edit] External links

[edit] Tables of states recognizing the SADR

• World Statesmen
• Western Sahara On-line
• The SADR (Spanish)
• Lasonet.com (Spanish)
• Friends of the Sahara (Spanish)
• The Association for a Free and Fair Referendum in Western Sahara

[edit] Others

• Arabic News - Senegal supports Morocco's territorial integrity
• Balkan Peace - Serbia-Montenegro withdraws recognition of Sahara Republic
• Morocco Times - Sahara issue - Sudan supports Moroccan territorial integrity
• Arabic News - Morocco, Gabon voice resolve to enhance cooperation