Rabat – Republican senator David McCormick has signed his name alongside US lawmakers backing the new bill to designate the Polisario as a terrorist group.
McCormick added his name as a cosponsor of the new bill on Monday.
Senators Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz first introduced “The Polisario Front Terrorist Designation Act of 2026” on March 11.
The bill was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations on the same day, with the backing of three senators to date, including Cotton, Rick Scott, and McCormick.
It urges the US administration to impose sanctions on Polisario for its cooperation with “an Iranian-affiliated terrorist organization.”
The bill is the second of its kind. Representative Joe Wilson of South Carolina also introduced a similar proposal last June, which was referred to the Committees on Foreign Affairs and the Judiciary.
Submitted to the House on June 24, 2025, the proposal urged the US administration to impose sanctions against Polisario and designate it as a terrorist cell.
“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 posed with portraits of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in a bid to attract revolutionary credibility and Iranian patronage,” the bill reads.
It also recalled collusion between Polisario and Hezbollah personnel who trained the separatist group members in the camps in 2018.
“One of the named trainers, since killed in a November 2023 Israeli airstrike in Syria, had previously been sanctioned by the United States for orchestrating the 2007 Karbala raid in Iraq that killed 5 American soldiers,” the bill reads.
The bill has received support from nine co-sponsors to date.
Republican senators, including Jimmy Panetta, Mario Diaz Balart, Jefferson Shreve, Randy Fine, Lance Gooden, Pat Harrigan, Zachary Nunn, Don Bacon, and Claudia Tenney support the bill.
Morocco cut ties with Iran in 2018, citing documented evidence that shows collusion among Polisario members and Iran’s proxy Hezbollah.
Iran has long denied the collusion, alleging readiness to resume diplomatic relations with Morocco.
Rabat, however, emphasized that it has hard evidence of Iran backing the Polisario Front via Algeria.
It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration will consider the two bills.
The US is a strong supporter of Morocco’s position on Western Sahara, viewing the Autonomy Plan as the only feasible political framework able to end the dispute.
Washington recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern provinces in 2020 and reiterated its determination to continue backing the Moroccan position in local and international forums.
The US is also facilitating talks between all parties to the dispute. It sponsored two meetings held in Madrid and Washington, convening representatives from Algeria, Polisario, Morocco, and Mauritania.
