Rabat – The Algerian-backed separatist group Polisario is facing a new blow after US lawmakers introduced a new bipartisan bill that aims to designate it as a terrorist group.
Representatives Josh Gottheimer and Ronny Jackson introduced the bipartisan bill, citing Polisario’s alleged cooperation with the Iranian proxy Hezbollah.
“The Iranian regime and its terrorist proxies are working overtime to open a new front against the United States and our allies, and the Polisario Front has become one of their instruments,” Gottheimer said.
He added that when a group takes weapons and drones from Iran and coordinates with its proxies, “we should call it exactly what it is: a terrorist organization.”
The bill “makes sure that once that cooperation is confirmed, we can bring the full weight of America’s counterterrorism sanctions down on the Polisario Front and cut its leaders off from the global financial system, international travel, and the resources they use to threaten us and our allies,” he added.
“Standing up to Iran and its proxies isn’t a partisan issue,” the Democratic congressman stated.
Tyler Stapleton, Senior Director of Government Relations at FDD Action, said the organization supports efforts to designate the separatist group, “which has been armed and trained by elements of Iran’s IRGC and Hezbollah.”
Stapleton described the bill as important, requiring the State Department to report on Polisario’s activities, including weapons trafficking and the use of armed drones against civilian targets.
The bill is the third of its kind, as several lawmakers are backing efforts to designate Polisario as a terrorist group.
One of the bills, submitted by Joe Wilson in June last year, has at least 14 co-sponsors backing Polisario’s terrorist designation.
The bill came against the backdrop of reports highlighting security concerns over Polisario’s threats, especially following the group’s repeated terrorist attacks against Morocco’s southern province of Es-Semara.
Senator Ted Cruz also introduced a separate bill this year, urging the U.S. administration to designate Polisario as a terrorist group.
For the first time, Monica Ager Jacobsen, Senior Bureau Official for the Bureau of Counterterrorism (CT), publicly conveyed the U.S. administration’s concerns about Polisario during an April hearing about U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Africa.
“We share concerns about the Polisario Front and its impact in the CT space. What I can say with confidence in an open hearing is that the region where the Polisario Front operates sits near trafficking and militant activity in the Sahel, and that this creates vulnerabilities that external actors, including Iran, could seek to exploit,” the U.S. official said.
