Tindouf and the shadow of the Tehran-Hezbollah axis

This is exactly what happened with the visit by religious figures from Lebanon and Syria to the refugee camps in Tindouf, a visit that might seem ordinary at first glance, but which in reality resembles a window onto a network of influence that is quietly expanding in North Africa. 

The faces that appeared in the photographs, the organisational environment surrounding the delegation and the places where it was received are all details that indicate that this was not just a religious protocol, but a calculated step in an itinerary that links the Polisario militia with the Tehran-Hezbollah axis, an itinerary that is no longer a secret or a mere political accusation, but a reality confirmed by reports and evidence accumulated over years. 

The presence of religious figures known for their proximity to Hezbollah networks in Tindouf shows that the Polisario no longer acts solely as a separatist group seeking international recognition, but as part of a system of influence that uses religious discourse as a means to legitimise its existence and create links with an axis that works to redistribute the balance of power in the region. 

The particular importance of this visit lies in the fact that it comes at a sensitive time when discussions are growing within US institutions about the relationship between the Polisario and Iran. These debates are no longer limited to analysis, but have been transformed into official documents presented by the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies and previous intelligence reports on the training of Polisario fighters by Hezbollah, as well as on the deployment of some of them to the war fronts in Syria and the subsequent return of several to other equally dangerous areas. 

The arrest of hundreds of Polisario fighters in Syria during the collapse of the regime there was one of the most revealing moments of the nature of this link, as it demonstrated that the Polisario is not only a political movement, but a structure open to all possible forms of violence. This explains, in part, the emergence of names from Tindouf who ended up leading terrorist organisations in the Sahel, as in the case of Adnan Abu al-Walid al-Sahrawi, who moved from a separatist project to a project of cross-border violence.  

Analysis of these interconnections shows that the Polisario has not developed politically in the same way as natural movements, which emerge from a clear social base; rather, since its inception, it has been a fragile entity that has always sought external protection to compensate for its lack of internal legitimacy, which has made it susceptible to infiltration by any axis capable of offering money, weapons or symbolic support, whether from Algeria, Iran or other actors. 

Algeria, at the centre of this network, now finds itself in a position full of contradictions: on the one hand, it is trying to distance itself from Tehran's policies for fear of their repercussions on its relations with the West; on the other hand, it is allowing the Polisario an open space in which delegations linked to the Iranian axis can operate, raising questions about Algeria's ability to control the limits of the game it itself opened. 

This visit also comes at a tense time in the United States, where Congress is debating a proposal to classify the Polisario as a terrorist organisation, based on a body of evidence linking the movement to Iran, Hezbollah and extremist organisations in the Sahel, as well as security incidents in the region, such as missile attacks near the Algerian border during the commemoration of the Green March in 2024. 

In this context, the visit sends an unspoken message: the separatist movement is not only seeking political alliances, but also a place within a broad network of influence that stretches from the southern suburbs of Beirut to the African Sahel, a network that sees North Africa as a new theatre of conflict and the Polisario as a foothold for destabilising the region and disrupting the balance of power in the Maghreb. 

From a political-psychological perspective, this visit reveals that the Polisario, after decades of inability to build its own political project, has begun to seek the meaning of its existence outside itself and an alternative identity shaped by the forces that instrumentalise it. It has lost the ability to produce its own narrative and, as a result, moves within narratives that belong to others, narratives that carry within them a project of chaos rather than any clear vision of the future. 

Ultimately, it can be said that the region is now facing a new phase in which the conflict transcends geographical boundaries to become a power struggle, with Iran's presence in Tindouf becoming an indicator of the shift from political support to the construction of a real foothold in North Africa. 

The fundamental question is whether a movement with this history of subjugation to external powers can be allowed to become a full-fledged instrument within a regional project that seeks to alter the balance of power in the area. The visit, presented by the Polisario as a routine event, is nothing more than another step in a deeper process that reveals the fragility of its project and, at the same time, the magnitude of the transformation that the region is undergoing, where the interests of Iran, Algeria and armed organisations converge in the same geographical space, while Washington moves with growing concern and considers that the security of the Sahel and the Maghreb is now part of its strategic security. 

Thus, it is clear that what happened in Tindouf is not an isolated event, but a sign of a more complex stage in which alliances are being reconfigured and calculations are being intertwined, a stage whose impact will last for years, because when geography moves in this way, it is difficult to turn back. 

Abdelhay Korret, Moroccan journalist and writer