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Rabat – The US Congress has officially published the full text introduced by Republican Congressman Joe Wilson, presenting a detailed case for designating the Polisario Front as a foreign terrorist organization.
The bill covers multiple arguments to convince the US Congress to designate the Polisario Front as a terrorist group, highlighting its collusion with Iranian proxy Hezbollah as well as its involvement in violent attacks against Moroccan forces, as well as its role in destabilizing the Maghreb and Sahel regions.
It is named the “Polisario Front Terrorist Designation Act,” stressing the separatist group’s documented history and operational ties with Iran.
Documented history of operational ties with Iran
“The Polisario Front has a documented history of ideological and operational ties with Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism, dating back at least to 1980, when Polisario fighters publicly posted with portraits of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in a bid to attract revolutionary credibility and Iranian patronage,” reads the congressional bill.
It cites reports highlighting Hezbollah’s collusion with Polisario, a reality whose uncovering prompted the severance of ties between Iran and Morocco in 2018.
Morocco announced that year its decision to freeze diplomatic relations after it received evidence about the collusion, accusing Tehran of providing Polisario military and logistical support.
While both Iran and Algeria denied the collusion, Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, and UN Permanent Representative Omar Hilale emphasized that Morocco had received indications and satellite proof of training and equipment provision links between Tehran and the separatist group.
Hilale said in 2022 that Iran had “gone from training to equipping the Polisario with drones.”
The bill highlights this collusion, suggesting that Iran’s support for the separatist group has reportedly advanced from training to the provision of lethal hardware. Images disseminated via Polisario-controlled social media channels attest to the separatist group’s access to Iranian-type munitions, it adds.
The congressional bill also pointed to the Washington Post’s recent report, shedding light on Iranian support for the Polisario Front.
“The Washington Post reported in April 2025 that Iran has trained Polisario Front fighters and provided them with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), deepening concerns about the group’s growing capabilities and external sponsorship,” says the bill.
In its report, the Washington Post quoted sources who confirmed that Hezbollah was training the separatist group to advance its interests in the Sahel.
“Over the years, Iran has fostered a wide array of proxy groups to advance its interests,” the report said, noting that a regional official and a third European official had indicated that Iran had been training fighters from the Algeria-based separatist group that are now detained by Syria’s new security forces.
International appeal
Like Wilson, many international officials have joined the growing chorus of voices urging their countries to label the separatist group as a terrorist group, given its involvement in destabilizing the region’s security, particularly the Sahel.
In June, Spanish news outlet La Provincia published an opinion piece recalling the separatist group’s attacks against workers from Fos Bucraa, fishermen from the Canary Islands, and civilians from the Basque Country.
The author of the piece, Igacio Ortiz, emphasized that the call to designate Polisario as a terrorist group should not be a mere political theater: “On the contrary, it should be a moral imperative.”
In addition, former UK Secretary of State for Defense, Liam Fox, made the same appeal.
“Like Hamas and Hezbollah, the Polisario Front is an Iranian proxy organization,” Fox said. “For the sake of our Moroccan allies, Western governments must move quickly to designate this group as a terrorist organisation.”
