Rabat – Polisario Front is continuing with the same line of pushing for an escalation in the region of Guergarat.
While Morocco opted for a policy of restraint, thus pulling out its armed forces from the region, the separatist group is taking another direction.
After a series of provocations, blocking Moroccan trucks carrying goods from getting access to Mauritania and keeping its fighters in Guergarat despite UN secretary general, Antonion Guetteres’ call on both parties to withdraw unconditionally from the region, Polisario is now directing its threats to the United Nations.
According to sources on the ground, the separatist groups threatened to take arms against the United Nations Mission For Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), if the peacekeeping mission set foot on Guergarat.
The Algeria-backed separatist group threatened the UN peacekeeping mission to open fire at its patrols if ever they move towards the region under Polisario’s control.
The threatening language held by the separatists prompted a response from the UN whose spokesperson said MINURSO patrols should move in all areas.
Polisario’s threats is adding more fuel to the fire at a time where the separatist group seems short of ideas on how to draw the attention of international community and sustain its claim as as the only and legitimate representatives of Sahrawis.
Some observers point an accusing finger at Algeria which, strangled by the internal political and economic crisis, is pushing for a confrontation between Polisario and Morocco.
“The Algerian military regime is expected to use all options, even the military option in order to divert the attention of its public opinion from the real popular concerns, and to create an artificial sense of unity against the Moroccan neighbor,” says to MWN Professor Reda El Fallah of the University of Ibn Zohr in Agadir.
Professor El Fallah believes the recent moves by Polisario are desperate attempts from the separatists and their Algerian sponsors to “provoke troubles in the region using the language of threats against Morocco.”
