Rabat – Morocco’s decision to cut ties with Iran is still making international headlines. Moroccan media have reported that Yonah Alexander, director of the Inter-University Center on Terrorism Studies, has urged the international community to remain extremely vigilant against “proven collusion” between Iranian alley Hezbollah and Polisario Front separatists.
According to state-owned Maghreb Arab News Agency (MAP), Alexander called for the collusion between Iran and Polisario to be denounced on Wednesday.
“The revelation of Polisario-Hezbollah collusion is the latest in a long series of examples of Iran’s harmful and destabilizing influence in the Middle East and Africa,” Alexander said.
He told the state-owned Maghreb Arab News Agency (MAP) in Washington that the issue is an urgent warning call on the international community to “hold the Iranian regime accountable for its actions.”
Commenting on Polisario and the threat it poses to the region’s stability, Alexander said that the separatist group has become a “backer of terrorist groups operating in the Sahel region,” he emphasized the need for an immediate solution to the Western Sahara conflict.
Another international expert has warned the international community of Polisario’s links with terrorist groups.
On the sidelines of the 13th World Social Forum in Brazil, Italian academic and journalist Massimiliano Boccolini warned of the presence of Tindouf camps in Algeria and Polisario are a direct threat to stability in the region and in the Sahel, according to Moroccan media reports.
He added that the separatists of the Polisario Front have been involved in other crimes, including “all types of trafficking” and migration issues.
Echoing Massimiliano’s statement, Alexander warned that the international community will face a “new generations of terrorists” due to Polisario’s worrying activities in the region.
Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced Iran’s interference in the country’s internal affairs on May 1, presenting “detailed evidence” of Hezbollah-Polisario collusion, including Iran. Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Nasser Bourita explained that Hezbollah offered military training to Polisario separatists in the Tindouf camps in Algeria.
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Sahel, Polisario’s New Target
In March, Head of Morocco’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau (BCIJ) Abdelhak Khiame warned the world of Polisario’s connivance with terrorist groups. In his interview with Jeune Afrique, Khiame said that the separatist group can also be “considered a terrorist organization in Sahel” as hundreds of members of the Polisario Front are working for Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and “they have been involved in attacks in northern Mauritania.”
Terrorist groups are not the only concern in the region; drug traffickers are also exploiting the region, which has become a fertile zone for both terrorists and drug smugglers.
Khiame also underscored that illegal activities serve as a means of escaping poverty for “separatists living in Tindouf.”
