Iran Expands Influence in North Africa: Reports Link Tehran to Polisario Front

Intelligence agency reports and Western investigators show that Tehran has been trying for several years to extend its influence through a global network of militias that it supports militarily, financially and technologically to exploit them in its struggle against the West in general and against the United States and Israel in particular, writes Christine Kenshi in an article published by Die Welt, stating that this network has extended to the Polisario, protected by Algeria in the Sahara conflict. The German newspaper would have "recordings and transcripts of telephone conversations between Polisario representatives and an agent who claims to be a contact of the Hezbollah in Côte d’Ivoire named Mustafa Muhammad Al-Amin Al-Kitab, who is the liaison officer" of the separatist movement "in Syria and responsible for the Middle East."

These new intelligence reports thus confirm the authenticity of the Moroccan reports. Rabat had accused Tehran of providing logistical assistance to the Polisario and wanting to spread Shiism in Africa and among Maghreb communities living in Europe. In 2022, Nasser Bourita, Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Residing Abroad, had stated that the Republic threatened the "spiritual security of Africa." "Iran plans to enter West Africa and spread the Shiite doctrine in the region," he had said. In 2018, Morocco broke its diplomatic relations with Iran following revelations that Iran was supplying arms and training Brahim Ghali’s men through the Lebanese Hezbollah. The Hezbollah "had sent military representatives to the Polisario Front, had provided them with weapons and had trained them in urban warfare," the Moroccan Foreign Minister had stated.

Iran had also contributed to organizing meetings between the Polisario and Hezbollah through its embassy in Algeria, Morocco had specified. Information confirmed by one of the separatist representatives who declared last year that Tehran was providing them, through Algeria, with "kamikaze" drones that they could use against Rabat.