Four-way meeting on Western Sahara

Polisario Front, Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania meet in Madrid under U.S. auspices

Foreign ministers of Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania, together with the head of the Polisario Front’s diplomatic delegation, have been summoned to a meeting this Sunday at the U.S. Embassy in Spain, a development first reported by El Confidencial.

The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs limited its comment to noting that its minister, José Manuel Albares, met separately on Saturday with his Algerian counterpart Ahmed Attaf and Mauritania’s Mohamed Salem Uld Merzuk. He added that “in the coming days he will meet in Madrid with his Moroccan counterpart Naser Burita, with the personal envoy of the UN Secretary‑General for Western Sahara Staffan de Mistura, and with the United States representative to the UN Michael Waltz. All of them are participants in the negotiation process sponsored by Washington.”

This multi‑track dialogue, unprecedented since the Green March, comes amid increasing U.S. diplomatic pressure on long‑stalled international conflicts.

“In this first contact, Morocco may limit itself to presenting the parties a new, expanded text for a ‘true autonomy’ before proceeding with this negotiating round,” the ministry said.

Background

• The most recent rounds of dialogue between Rabat and the Polisario Front took place in Manhasset (USA) (2007‑2008) and Geneva (2018‑2019).
• A four‑party format involving the United States and the United Nations, with Madrid as the venue, is unprecedented.

Morocco’s Proposed Autonomy Model

Morocco has drawn inspiration from several European experiences:

• The statutes of France’s overseas territories.
• The devolved administrations of Scotland and Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom.
• Spain’s system of autonomous communities, particularly Catalonia, which is frequently cited in Moroccan media as a reference for Western Sahara.

According to diplomatic sources in Rabat, the goal is to present the United Nations with a genuine autonomous project for the territory.

The new autonomy proposal, as previewed by El Confidencial, contains a text ten times longer than the 2007 draft. It envisions:

• A self‑government statute to be subject to a referendum among the Sahrawi population—more than 80 % of whom are not originally from the territory that was Spain’s Province 53 until 1975.
• Incorporation of the statute into the Spanish Constitution through a constitutional amendment.

“Foreign Minister Burita has declared that the autonomy route effectively equals the free exercise of the right to self‑determination, although Morocco has so far refused to allow its proposal to be put to a referendum in which independence would be an option,” explained El País.

The outcome of this historic four‑party meeting could reshape the diplomatic landscape of the Western Sahara conflict.