Polisario Front Representative in Spain refutes Moroccan disinformation, says Western Sahara issue must not be used as pretext to cover structural crises between Madrid and Rabat

Madrid (Spain), August 18, 2026 (SPS) – The Polisario Front’s representative in Spain, Abdallah Al-Arabi, said in an opinion article published today by the Spanish online newspaper InfoLibre that using the Western Sahara issue as a pretext to justify the recurring diplomatic crises between Spain and Morocco is a misleading oversimplification that ignores the real and historical roots of the contradictions between the two countries.

The Sahrawi diplomat said that the concern prevailing among Spanish public opinion stems primarily from Morocco’s continued expansionist ambitions toward the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, as well as from the management of the borders and efforts to control them.

The article stressed that terms such as “shared prosperity” and economic cooperation should not be exploited to blur the political and legal specificity of Ceuta and Melilla, or to conceal questions of sovereignty and territorial equity.

The Polisario Front representative also noted that the dispute over the territorial waters adjacent to Western Sahara has been legally settled through the repeated jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union, which considers them an integral part of the Sahrawi territory listed by the United Nations as a Non-Self-Governing Territory.

Abdallah Al-Arabi concluded his article by stressing that neither Spain nor the European Union has the right to act in a manner that disregards the sovereignty of the Sahrawi people over their land and resources. He affirmed that any measure or project undertaken south of latitude 27.40° necessarily requires the explicit and legitimate consent of the Sahrawi people through its sole legitimate representative, the Polisario Front.

The Sahrawi diplomat emphasized that achieving genuine stability and a strong, balanced relationship between Spain and Morocco requires moving away from superficial political analyses and from attempts to conceal fundamental problems. He argued that any sustainable understanding can only be built on a solid foundation resting on three essential pillars: full respect for international law and the resolutions of international legitimacy; a commitment to political good faith and keeping promises, away from pressure and blackmail; and explicit recognition of the legitimate interests of both sides without compromising the territorial sovereignty of Western Sahara or addressing strategic differences through simplistic narratives.