Morocco threatens firm action against Polisario in buffer zones

CASABLANCA — Rabat warned Sunday that it would take control of UN-monitored buffer zones in Western Sahara, criticising the UN mission for failing to keep out Polisario Front separatist fighters.
"Morocco will never allow any change in the legal and historical status of the Guerguarat buffer zone, which is an integral part of the national territory," warned Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita.
The warning came as the UN is preparing a report this week on whether to extend its 27-year-old peacekeeping mission for the disputed territory.
Bourita said that the separatist fighters recently moved members to the UN-controlled areas of Bir Lehlou and Tifariti.
"The UN's response to the Polisario provocations in the Guerguarat region was not strong enough to deter separatists," he said.
The top diplomat stressed that Morocco “will act firmly against the provocations of the Polisario in the region of Guerguarat and will never allow any change in the status of this area that is an integral part of the national territory and has always experienced a Moroccan presence until 1991.”
The new tensions came few weeks after Bourita held “fruitful” talks with US special envoy to Western Sahara Horst Köhler in Lisbon.
Morocco annexed Western Sahara in 1975 and maintains it is an integral part of the kingdom. Algerian-backed Polisario Front separatists began an armed conflict with Morocco for an independent state that lasted until the United Nations brokered a ceasefire in 1991.
Rabat has proposed a form of autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty for the territory. The proposal was rejected by the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, which insists on the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination in a UN-monitored vote.