US held secret meeting between Algeria, Morocco, Polisario and Mauritania over Western Sahara
The US has hosted representatives of Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria and the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi national liberation movement, in Madrid for secret talks to discuss the occupied Western Sahara.
High-level delegations, each composed of three members led by their respective foreign ministers, met at the residence of the US ambassador in the Spanish capital on Sunday.
The talks were overseen by Massad Boulos, Donald Trump's senior adviser on African affairs, accompanied by Michael Waltz, the US ambassador to the United Nations, and the personal envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura.
The meeting, which was supposed to remain confidential, was revealed by Spanish newspaper El Confidencial's journalist Ignacio Cembrero on Saturday.
According to Cembrero, the framework for the discussions was Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara, which was adopted by the UN Security Council last year.
New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch
Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters
The plan has been rejected by the Polisario Front, who asks for a referendum on self-determination as planned by a 35-year-old UN resolution. It would cement Morocco's control over the African region, which it has occupied since 1975, while nominally offering a degree of self-governance for the Sahrawis.
According to Cembrero, the US had asked Morocco to completely revise its autonomy proposal. A 40-page document - up from the initial three pages - has thus been drafted for these negotiations.
The talks on Sunday constitute the second stage of a process launched in late January in Washington, where an initial 48-hour meeting took place in utmost secrecy, according to El Confidencial.
'Absolute priority for the US'
Western Sahara is often referred to as the last colony in Africa and is included in the United Nations' list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
The territory is officially, legally, recognised as being under Spanish jurisdiction by most of the international community, as the former colonial power failed to finalise a UN-mandated independence process and instead allowed Morocco and Mauritania to invade from the north and south in 1975, overriding the wishes of Sahrawi independence campaigners.
Sahrawi activists living in the territories occupied by Morocco have faced fierce repression - with female activists in particular suffering sexual abuse and violence at the hands of police - while the hundreds of thousands living in refugee camps in Algeria continue to endure lives dependent almost entirely on UN and Algerian support in the harsh desert environment.
The presence of Algeria at Sunday's meeting has been presented by Moroccan media as an indication that the country, long the Polisario Front's patron, is willing to accept the autonomy plan.
The US has ruled out a referendum on independence for Western Sahara, and during his first time in office, President Donald Trump accepted Morocco's sovereignty over the region in exchange for the kingdom formalising diplomatic ties with Israel.
According to the US International Trade Administration, Morocco is the leading purchaser of American military equipment in Africa, with contracts worth $8.5bn in 2025.
Last month, following in the footsteps of the US, Spain and France, the other members of the European Union, which also has close commercial ties with Morocco, supported the Moroccan autonomy plan,
According to Cembrero, the biggest development in recent months has been the staunch support of the US for Morocco and the involvement of US diplomacy in this conflict for the first time.
At the end of December, Boulos told the Lebanese daily An-Nahar that resolving the Western Sahara issue was an "absolute priority for the United States".
"What’s new," Cembrero said, "is that there’s been a strong commitment from the United States since October, I would say, from American diplomacy, from President Trump’s representative for Africa, Massad Boulos, who recently went to Algiers at the end of January to try to move the Western Sahara issue forward - I would even say to close the file - by having the Moroccan proposal adopted, the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara."
Middle East Eye delivers independent and unrivalled coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. To learn more about republishing this content and the associated fees, please fill out this form. More about MEE can be found here.
