Sahrawi PM accuses Spain of backing Moroccan autonomy plan
Bucharaya Hamudi Beyun says the Polisario Front will use legal, warlike and non-warlike means to defend Sahrawi rights, ahead of the 50th EUCOCO in Madrid.
Sahrawi Prime Minister Bucharaya Hamudi Beyun accused the Spanish government of Pedro Sánchez of backing Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara, alongside the United States. Speaking on Friday at a press conference in Madrid before the 50th EUCOCO, he said the Polisario Front is ready to use "all legal, warlike and non-warlike instruments" to defend Sahrawi rights.
Beyun compared Sánchez's position to that of the last Franco government, calling it inexplicable that a socialist government now takes the stance a Franco government once did. He said Morocco and its Western allies sought a Security Council resolution making autonomy "the only solution" and turning the MINURSO mission into a cheap one, and that Russia vetoed it. Spain is not on the Council but sits in the Group of Friends of Western Sahara, which prepares resolutions on the territory.
Beyun said Morocco is moving and concentrating troops along the wall, probably to step up military action, and blamed the Americans, Spain, France and the United Kingdom for the policy. Asked whether Morocco was provoking escalation, he pointed to the 1991 ceasefire, which he said Rabat accepted because it could no longer sustain the war. The conflict has run six years since the ceasefire broke down at Guerguerat.
Why it mattersSpain's support for autonomy, if it continues, would weaken the UN mission that monitors the territory and shift the Security Council's terms for any future deal.