Trump Advisor: 2024 Win Could End Sahara Dispute, Boost Morocco

In an interview with the Spanish media Atalayar, George Lombardi, senior advisor to former US President Donald Trump, says he is confident that if the Republican candidate wins the 2024 presidential election, he could bring Algeria and the Polisario to the negotiating table to resolve the conflict. "Trump was a close friend of the King of Morocco, much closer than Obama or even Biden. [...] I am sure there is a strong friendship between Trump and King Mohammed VI, regardless of anything else, because they both care about their countries and their peoples, and they both try to seek peace and economic progress," added the one who has over 30 years of experience in the business world, in politics and in academia, and who has written extensively on international affairs.

Lombardi also welcomed the King of Morocco’s Atlantic Initiative for Africa. According to him, it will be well received in the United States and Europe. "Omar Zniber, Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations Office in Geneva, said the initiative is particularly important because it brings together people with the same values and the same goals, and that is what is happening in the world right now," he noted. And to continue: "Morocco is a historic friend of the United States and the most Western countries of Europe, and this historic friendship will continue."

Last July, the United States maintained its position on the Sahara. While Algeria hopes that the United States will reverse its decision, "President Biden has not changed the proclamation [of his predecessor Donald Trump on the Sahara], because it is a historical fact," Elizabeth Moore Aubin, US Ambassador to Algeria, had said in an interview with the Algerian anti-Moroccan website La Patrie News. Since 2008, the United States has supported the Moroccan autonomy plan, she recalled, estimating that this plan remains a viable solution. She also stressed that the Biden administration "continues to consider Morocco’s autonomy plan as serious, credible and realistic, carrying an approach that can meet the aspirations of the people of the Sahara."