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Source: https://www.jns.org/opinion/in-praise-of-diplomatic-quid-pro-quos/
Morocco's Claim to the Western Sahara
(JNS) Jonathan S. Tobin - Normalization between Morocco and Israel was coupled with American recognition of the Moroccan claim to the Western Sahara. The territory is a sparsely populated strip of desert adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean that used to be owned by Spain, which gave it up in 1975 after the death of dictator Francisco Franco. Neighboring Morocco staked a claim to the land that had been stolen by Europeans. It was opposed by a small nationalist movement, the Polisario, that, with the help of Algeria, waged a bloody and unsuccessful war against Morocco for 16 years before agreeing to a ceasefire in 1991, which left Morocco in charge of almost the entire country. Much of the international community still supports the myth that the Polisario represents the territory, continuing to prop them up in a war they can never win in order to create another dysfunctional Third World country. The U.S. is merely acknowledging reality when it says that the Moroccans aren't giving up land they think is theirs.