Written by Khalid Ibrahim KhaledFriday, 24 February 2012 10:20
The next round of negotiations on the Sahara divides the ranks of the Polisario because of the recent warming of the inter-Maghreb relationships. A situation which torments the Chief of the Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, less than three weeks before the meeting of 11 March in Manhasset, in the suburb of New York. From well informed sources in Tindouf, it is the recent Maghreb rapprochement which is at the origin of the disagreement between the main leaders of the separatist Front. The discords have appeared during the meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers of the Maghreb countries, on February 18, in Morocco. For certain members from the Polisario leadership, the exchanges happening between the five UMA delegations are signs which do not deceive. Time is from now on for the rapprochement of the Maghreb countries and the Polisario cause is paying the cost of it. The most sceptic ones among the Polisario leaders do not doubt the continuing of the unconditional support of Algiers.At the same time, they believe that the Algerian leaders can not stop the Maghreb train which has started moving on, leaving on the quay the Polisario and the inaudible SADR. The Polisario leadership had already felt the wind blowing in the region with the tragic fall of Kadhafi and the arrest of the financial and military support resulting from it. It felt more threatened when the new Tunisian President, Moncef Marzouki has pleaded with force, in his speech at the African Summit, for the return of Morocco to the bosom of the African Union. And not to make things better, the announce of a summit regrouping the five heads of the Maghreb States, which would take place in 2012, probably in Tunisia, has definitely killed the weak hopes of Mohamed Abdelaziz. So many developments which have pushed certain Polisario leaders to recommend a more realistic and pragmatic approach during the coming negotiations with Morocco, in Manhasset. Nevertheless, Mohamed Abdelaziz seems decided to struggle with all the means against such a process.
