US-Saudi-Israeli ‘Iran’ rhetoric & Morocco’s Western Sahara dispute

Summary 1) Morocco’s claims about Iran and Western Sahara 2) Just a few weeks before their football teams play at the World Cup, Morocco’s attempt to drag Iran into its dispute with the Western Sahara may have fallen flat on its face. 3) Morocco’s move has been to claim that Lebanon’s Iranian-backed resistance movement Hezbollah trained and armed Polisario, a pro-independence Western Sahara movement via Algeria. Both Iran and Algeria have dismissed the claims and analysts say this is yet another attempt by Morocco to prevent self-determination for the Sahrawi people who have been suffering Morocco’s aggressive policies against them for decades. 4) The peaceful conclusion to Western Sahara sovereignty seems to be inching ever further away with a ratcheting up of tensions between Morocco and Algeria. Now even Iran and Hezbollah are being touted by Rabat as in some way aiding and abetting Polisario – the movement leading the independence struggle for decades. Meanwhile, the Sahrawi people continue to suffer in the disputed territory and in refugee camps.