On December 10, 2020, the Western Sahara as belonging to the Kingdom of Morocco. This was done in hope of coaxing another Arab monarchy into normalizing relations with Israel. This acknowledgment comes in the aftermath of the Abraham Accords, an agreement that opened official relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. What was originally an agreement between Israel and the UAE is now considered to be a part of a larger effort, under the auspices of the United States, to create official ties between Israel and their Arab neighbors. Before the overture to Morocco, Bahrain was the last to begin normalizing relations with Israel.
Besides seeing this as a diplomatic achievement, the Trump administration has another reason to acknowledge the Western Sahara as being a part of Morocco. The Abraham Accords includes weapon trade as an incentive for the signing. The US just sold the UAE $23bn worth of advanced weaponry after they agreed to enter into the Accords (“US approves $23bn advanced arms sale to UAE: Pompeo”). Morocco is also to be the beneficiary of state-of-the-art American weapons. This $1bn deal will equip Morocco with the latest in drone weaponry (Zengerle and Stone). It should be noted that it is illegal to sell weapons to a country to use against a nation they are illegally occupying, therefore by acknowledging the Western Sahara as part of Morocco the Trump administration can sell weapons to Morocco while claiming that the Sahrawi question is a domestic matter.
The Trump administration is engaged in the most cynical of diplomacy, bargaining away the lives and sovereignty of a people in exchange for laurels and weapon sales. This is a strategy that undermines the values which created the Pax Americana in the first place and differentiated the United States from the superpowers which came before. If domination, power games, and other cynical mechanisms is how the United States would like to characterize its diplomacy, American Exceptionalism would prove not very exceptional. The political philosophy of the powerbroker is commonplace in the international community. To so nakedly trade the status of a people in a pay-for-play gambit, the Trump administration would forfeit American idealism to become a lowly salesmen whose accords are built on the broken backs of the people.
Israel has lobbied the Trump administration on behalf of Morocco’s claim to the Western Sahara for some time now, and their labor has final born fruit. It should not be a surprise that Israel would be such a staunch defender of Morocco. Israel and Morocco are natural allies, both are established nation-states who use military and international pressure to advance their colonial ambitions. Morocco seeks to annex the Western Sahara the way Israel does in regard to the West Bank (Palestine). Truly, Morocco signing the Accords would only function to say aloud what Israel and Morocco have been to one another for years, friends united in common cause.
Andrew Curtis: I am a political scientist, specialized in political theory, residing in the greater Los Angeles area. Having made Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Gene Sharp the cornerstone of my research, I would discover the impact that their work has made on the Arab Spring. In my desire to better understand a people’s right to self-determination, I discovered the Sahrawi and their struggle against the Moroccan occupation of their homeland, the Western Sahara. According to Noam Chomsky, it was here that the embers of the Arab Spring were first given breath. It was the culmination of my academic interest combined with my personal beliefs which lead me to SAUSA and their just cause.