Morocco Warns of Possible Expansion into Eastern Sahara Amid UN Mission Tensions

During a press conference in New York, Omar Hilale spoke of "blackmail of hunger and thirst" that the Polisario would exert on the "team sites" of the United Nations Mission for the Sahara (Minurso). The Moroccan diplomat reported obstacles from the Sahrawi separatist movement to the Minurso mission to discuss a possible invasion of the territories located east of the wall by Morocco.

Omar Hilale equates these actions of the Polisario, which he also describes as a "serious mistake", to what "Daesh and Al Qaeda are doing in the Sahel". He warns that if these "obstructions" of the Polisario persist, the UN could withdraw its observers from the Sahara, which "would create a new situation on the ground" and lead Morocco to return to the situation that prevailed before the ceasefire of 1991, "legally and on the ground". In other words, "Morocco would be entitled to take back the part of the Sahara that was handed over to Minurso," he developed.

Omar Hilale made these statements after the renewal, on Thursday, of Minurso’s mandate by the UN Security Council. The Sahara conflict has been going on for more than 50 years.