Polisario Front Condemns Morocco-Israel Oil Deal in Disputed Western Sahara

"This agreement represents a new stage in the series of economic crimes perpetrated by Morocco in the Sahrawi territories [...] ", indicates a statement from the "Sahrawi oil and mining authority". According to it, this agreement "has no legal value since Morocco has no sovereignty over Western Sahara, as affirmed by the International Court of Justice in its advisory opinion of 1975 and reiterated by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in 2016 and 2018 and recently by the General Court of the European Union on September 29."

The Israeli gas and oil exploration company, Ratio Petroleum Partnership, obtained from Morocco at the end of September the exclusive exploration and study rights of the Dakhla Atlantic block, on behalf of Ratio Gibraltar, reported the Israeli site Energia News. Located along the Atlantic coast, this block extends from the coastline to the sea front over an area of nearly 109,000 km².