West guilty of ‘hypocrisy’ over Western Sahara – political activist

The question of independence for Western Sahara has not been resolved because Morocco’s Western allies are uninterested in it, political activist and commentator Talen Ali Salem has told RT. 

Earlier this week, Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said that “Africa cannot completely turn the final page of its colonial history without enabling the Sahrawi people to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination.”  

A former Spanish colony, Western Sahara is a disputed territory on the northwest coast of Africa. It borders Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, and Mauritania to the east.   

Around 80 % of the territory has been under Moroccan occupation since 1975. It is also partly controlled by the partially recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). The republic was created in 1976 during a guerrilla war against Moroccan forces supported by Algeria, and has since won recognition from 46 of 193 UN member states.   

According to Talen Ali Salem, “Morocco is the principal ally of NATO, of Western countries in North Africa” and Western Sahara is “the last colony in Africa.”  

The situation is an example of the “hypocrisy” of Western countries as they claim to “respect international order [and] human rights… but [do] not respect the international legality in Western Sahara,” he told RT.