Sahrawi independence advocates defiantly dismissed an announcement Thursday by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that the United States would open a “virtual” diplomatic mission in Western Sahara as a first step toward establishing a permanent consulate in the Moroccan-occupied territory.<\/p>\n
Pompeo said in a statement<\/a> that the US was “inaugurating a virtual presence post for Western Sahara, with a focus on promoting economic and social development, to be followed soon by a fully functioning consulate.” <\/p>\n The State Department said that the virtual post – which will allow US officials to conduct consular and other business remotely – will be managed by the American Embassy in Rabat, the Moroccan capital.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The development came nearly two weeks after President Donald Trump announced<\/a> an agreement in which the US recognized as legitimate Morocco’s illegal occupation in exchange for the North African kingdom’s establishing full diplomatic ties with Israel. This made the US the first country to recognize Morocco’s claim of sovereignty in Western Sahara. <\/p>\n While Morocco’s monarch, King Mohammed VI, hailed<\/a> US recognition of his country’s claim to Western Sahara as an “historic turning point,” advocates for Sahrawi independence roundly condemned the move. <\/p>\n The Polisario Front – the United Nations-recognized, Algerian-backed Sahrawi national liberation movement – blasted<\/a> the US declaration as “a blatant violation of the United Nations charter and the resolutions of international legitimacy.”<\/p>\n Additionally, Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention<\/a> (pdf) states that an “occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies,” a proscription violated by both Israel in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories and by Morocco in Western Sahara.<\/p>\n There was widespread indignation following Pompeo’s announcement, as Sahrawis and international human rights defenders condemned the move. <\/p>\n When you go low we go up. Your empty slogans on human rights can never impact our future. We the Saharawis are fighting 4 our complete sovereignty over our #WesternSahara<\/a>, we don\u2019t need your permission to do that<\/p>\n – Minetu Larabas Sueidat (@minetu_larabas) December 24, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n