The bells toll for the Polisario
- What is false is always destined to dissipate
- Classified as terrorist
- Thus toll the bells for the Polisario
- The caricature of the Sahrawi guerrilla
The Polisario's Spanish friends are called upon to reflect on the complexity of the conflict and the risks of supporting an actor whose current reality goes beyond simple functional separatism.
The Polisario not only betrayed its own dream, but also deceived those who believed in it without really looking behind the mask.
Since early 2025, several political and media voices in the United States, Europe and Latin America have risen to call for the designation of the Polisario Front as a terrorist organisation. These demands are based on allegations of links to extremist groups, acts of violence against civilians and illicit activities in the Sahel and Sahara region.
After al-Qaeda, al-Shabab, Daesh, Abu Sayyaf, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah, Hamas, Boko Haram, AQIM and others, it seems that the bells are tolling these days for the POLISARIO, that so-called Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro, which takes its name from a Spanish acronym while claiming to govern an ‘Arab republic’, thus revealing one of its most striking and ironic paradoxes, which perfectly illustrates the fabricated and false identity of this so-called ‘national liberation movement’.
What is false is always destined to dissipate
During his speech at the opening of the legislative session last October, King Mohammed VI proclaimed, with regard to the question of the Moroccan Sahara, that ‘Today, thank God, the truth has emerged; the truth always prevails: just causes always triumph...’ and added, ‘God Almighty said: And say, 'The truth has come and falsehood has vanished; falsehood is always destined to vanish'.
Thus, the bells of truth are ringing ever louder, announcing the end of a great imposture, the revelation of a deliberate deception, the collapse of a separatist gang that, long presented as an essential player in the ‘Sahrawi cause’, is now seeing its true nature unmasked, its lies exposed and its image crumbling in the eyes of international public opinion, revealing a reality as dark and disturbing as the separatist illusion it fed.
Several reports and political leaders have mentioned links between the Polisario and jihadist networks, particularly those of Iran, Hezbollah and groups active in the Sahel. Accusations have been made about the involvement of Polisario members in arms, drug and human trafficking, as well as in radicalisation in the Tindouf camps. Attacks against civilians have also been mentioned, including indiscriminate terrorist attacks against the city of Smara in 2023. Actions against Spanish civilians in the 1970s and 1980s are cited as evidence of a strategy of terror carried out by Polisario militias, against which victims' associations have mobilised to demand justice for the acts committed against their nationals. US parliamentarians (such as Congressman Joe Wilson), European parliamentarians (French MP Pierre-Henri Dumont) and Latin American parliamentarians (Argentine MP Álvaro González) have publicly supported the idea of designating the Polisario as a terrorist organisation, citing reports from US and European think tanks.
Classified as terrorist
Before examining what the recent calls to include the Polisario Front on the list of terrorist organisations mean for the Moroccan Sahara issue, it is essential to place this classification in the broader context of international relations dynamics. Indeed, the designation of a group as ‘terrorist’ appeared in international relations mainly in the context of the fight against violent acts aimed at destabilising States and the international community. This practice was strengthened from the 1990s onwards, particularly with the recognition by the United Nations Security Council in 1992 that international terrorism constitutes a threat to international peace and security.
The main context intensified after the attacks of 11 September 2001, which led to increased international efforts to define, prevent and combat terrorism. The Security Council then adopted several resolutions characterising terrorism as a serious threat to global security, justifying coercive measures, including sanctions and the use of force.
The main purpose of classifying an organisation as terrorist is precisely to enable States and international organisations to justify specific measures, such as sanctions, military operations and intelligence cooperation, while isolating these armed groups politically and highlighting their reprehensible nature.
The practice of classifying an organisation as terrorist therefore arose from the international community's need to respond to an asymmetric threat that challenges the sovereignty of States and global security, posing a major challenge for political, legal and security coordination at the global level. It should be remembered, however, that the classification of an organisation as terrorist differs between national governments and regional and international bodies due to the absence of a universal definition of terrorism in international law, which allows each entity to develop its own criteria and lists. The most emblematic case is that of Hamas, classified as terrorist by the EU, the United States and Canada, but not included on the UN list due to disagreements in the Security Council.
This difference in approach, it should be emphasised, leads to divergences in the lists of organisations designated as terrorist, reflecting geopolitical and security priorities, as well as national and regional legal sovereignties in the application of this designation. More importantly, it is also important to note that the designation of a group as terrorist is not merely a declaratory act, but is accompanied by precise legal and legislative procedures which, depending on the level (international, national), involve a formal decision (international resolution, national decree), inclusion on an official list with specific criteria, legal measures (freezing of assets, criminal sanctions) and administrative measures (controls, closures) and a procedural framework that guarantees fundamental rights in the prosecution of offences.
Thus toll the bells for the Polisario
Last April, Republican representative Joe Wilson announced his intention to introduce a bill in the US Congress to include the Polisario Front on the State Department's blacklist of foreign terrorist organisations. This initiative marks a strategic shift in US policy, has the support of several influential legislators in both houses, and is based on analyses linking the Polisario to terrorist and destabilising activities in the Maghreb and Sahel region, in particular links to Iran and jihadist groups.
This bill aims to criminalise the Polisario Front and officially designate it as a terrorist organisation, which would go beyond the classic administrative procedure of designation by the State Department. It is therefore a legislative initiative which, if passed, would legally reinforce this designation and the associated measures (sanctions, asset freezing, criminal proceedings) in US law.
In Latin America, several political figures and think tanks support the request to designate the Polisario Front as a terrorist organisation, based in particular on a report by the Hudson Institute that establishes links between the Polisario, Hezbollah, Iran and jihadist groups in the Sahel. In Argentina, Deputy Álvaro González has publicly supported this classification, while in Peru, legislators denounce Iranian support for the Polisario and its involvement in attacks against Morocco. In Paraguay, senators have joined this call, highlighting the threat that the Polisario poses to regional security. These Latin American voices are part of an international movement that seeks to recognise the Polisario not only as a simple armed separatist group, but as an actor involved in transregional terrorist networks.
In France, several political voices are calling for the Polisario Front to be designated a terrorist organisation, based on analyses denouncing its links to extremist groups such as Hezbollah and Iran, as well as acts of violence and illegal activities in the Sahel-Saharan region. MP Pierre-Henri Dumont has publicly requested this designation, stressing that the Polisario now acts as a vector of geostrategic destabilisation, particularly through connections with transregional terrorist networks and illicit trafficking in the Tindouf camps.
Several questions have been raised in the European Parliament on this issue. The most recent dates from 2023, when MEP Thierry Mariani addressed a written question to the European Commission, asking whether it considered the attacks against civilians in Smara to be terrorist acts and whether it was considering suspending funding for the Tindouf refugee camps, which are controlled exclusively by the Polisario Front.
In its replies to this and similar questions, the Commission stated that it had ‘no information on possible collaboration between the Polisario and terrorist groups in the region’, but that it would ‘continue to closely monitor developments’ and, without announcing the suspension of funding for the Tindouf detention camps, promised to ‘keep a close watch on the situation and the conditions under which the aid is used’!
While waiting for the EEC to become fully aware of the security risk posed by the Polisario in the region, Spanish intelligence sources have recently revealed that a dozen Sahrawis, born in the Tindouf camps in Algeria and who participated in the ‘Holidays in Peace’ programme in Spain, have become radicalised jihadists before gaining leadership positions within the Islamic State (Daesh) in the Sahel. The same sources warn that these individuals, who speak perfect Spanish and have experience with Spanish families, could be capable of carrying out attacks on European soil. This new revelation from intelligence services confirms a real and growing risk of jihadist radicalisation among members of the Polisario Front in the Tindouf camps, identified as recruitment and radicalisation sites for jihadist groups in the Sahel and the Maghreb, due to instability, poverty and the influence of extremist ideologies. Experts and intelligence services warn that this situation could evolve rapidly if jihadist groups operating in the region decide to attack Western interests. The presence of Polisario members at the head of organisations such as Daesh seriously increases the risk that pro-Polisario individuals in Europe will be mobilised to carry out attacks.
Let us not forget in this context that between 1973 and 1986, the Polisario Front carried out 289 terrorist attacks against Spanish fishing boats and citizens, who were paradoxically recognised by the Spanish State as ‘victims of terrorism’, without the perpetrators having been officially identified as terrorists to this day.
Growing evidence of jihadist radicalisation within the Polisario ranks, as well as intelligence reports indicating links to transnational terrorist networks, directly challenge those in Spain who have traditionally held a favourable view of the Polisario as a ‘national liberation movement’ without perceiving the risk that this criminal organisation poses to peace and security in Spain.
The position of intelligence services and international analysts is increasingly critical, warning that the radicalisation of certain individuals linked to the Polisario and proven links to transnational actors involved in violence represent a real risk to regional security and, potentially, to European stability. This forces the Polisario's Spanish friends to reflect on the complexity of the conflict and the risks of supporting an actor whose current reality goes beyond simple functional separatism.
Recent calls to include the Polisario Front on the list of terrorist organisations reflect an important evolution in the international perception of this separatist movement, which was long considered a political and military actor in a decolonisation conflict. It is now perceived by several international actors as involved in transregional destabilising activities, particularly arms smuggling and the recruitment of combatants. These requests to classify the Polisario Front as a terrorist organisation represent a decisive turning point in the conflict, insofar as the willingness of several states to label this movement as a threat to regional and international security is sincerely leading to its discrediting as part of the UN political process.
The caricature of the Sahrawi guerrilla
It took half a century for the world to finally face reality and recognise what Moroccans have always known: that the Polisario's supposed struggle for ‘independence’ in the Sahara was nothing more than a grotesque sham. But better late than never, so that the mask may fall and the sham that some rejoiced in may give way to the sad truth.
Images of collapse, whether physical, moral or symbolic, often illustrate human fragility in the face of the power of the gods, as in Greco-Roman mythology, or in the face of the consequences of excess or transgression. When the fall involves a sudden break with an established order, generating emotional, symbolic or narrative consequences, it takes on a tragic dimension that reveals strong tensions between human aspirations and the limits imposed by reality. The tragic dimension also emerges from the violent contrast between a before and an after (the fall of Baghdad, the conquest of Granada, the Nakba, the collapse of the USSR...), embodying a fracture of identity and lasting trauma.
On the contrary, the fall of the Polisario Front, implying the end of an anachronistic political agenda because it is slow, progressive, agonising and inevitable, does not seem to provoke any tragic perception, although it will ultimately have profound long-term consequences. But what, in my humble opinion, is truly tragic about the collapse of the separatist dream is not so much that the Polisario has been discredited as a terrorist group, but that for decades some have reduced left-wing internationalism to a caricature of the Sahrawi guerrilla fighting for the freedom of a supposed people, deserving of unconditional support. That is the real tragedy: a cynical and deceptive myth that has blinded generations of the European and Latin American left, transforming a geopolitical conflict into an ideological pantomime, to the detriment of truth and justice. The Polisario not only betrayed its own dream, but also deceived those who believed in it without really looking behind the mask.