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Rabat – US Deputy Assistant Secretary Josh Harris is set to arrive in Morocco in the coming days, the US State Department announced on Thursday.
In a brief statement released on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, the US State Department added that Harris will also visit Algeria.
The visit will serve as an opportunity for Harris to “consult on regional security and reaffirm full U.S. support for the UN political process for Western Sahara,” the department said, without mentioning the exact date of the trip.
Harris’ visit comes just a few months before the UN Security Council’s vote on a new resolution on Western Sahara.
The vote is expected by the end of October, which will mark the expiration of the mandate of MINURSO, the UN’s peacekeeping operation in Western Sahara.
Safe for the political gains Morocco has made in the Sahara dossier over the past couple of years, there has not much going on at the level of the UN – which appears to have failed to get the Algerian regime to shoulder its responsibility in the territorial dispute.
Algeria, which hosts, finances, arms, and supports the Polisario Front – a separatist group claiming independence in Western Sahara– views itself as merely an observer rather than a main party to the dispute.
Even more crucially, perhaps, the Algerian regime has strongly rejected the UN’s latest appeals and resolutions on the Sahara.
Read also: Western Sahara: US Reacts to Israel’s Decision, Reaffirms Recognition of Moroccan Sovereignty
Notably, the UN has repeatedly called on all parties to the decades-long dispute, namely Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, and the Polisario Front, to engage in the UN-led process “without preconditions” and with an eye to reaching a compromise-based and politically realistic solution.
Not only has the Algerian regime rejected the UN’s call for a compromise-based solution, it has also engaged in a disinformation campaign regarding some countries’ position on the Sahara dispute – including the US.
The US recognized Morocco’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over the Western Sahara region in Moroccan southern provinces in December 2020.
Since then, many other countries from Africa, Europe, and the Arab World have expressed support for Morocco’s territorial integrity and described the Moroccan Autonomy Plan as the best route to a lasting and realistic settlement of the Sahara dispute.
