Washington describes Morocco's plan for the Sahara region as "serious and realistic." What is its content?

On Monday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken offered strong support for Morocco's "serious, credible, and realistic" plan for Western Sahara, the disputed area between Rabat and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.

On Monday, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken gave strong support to Morocco's "serious, credible, and realistic" plan for the Sahara region, the disputed area between Rabat and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.

In a statement issued at the conclusion of Blinken's meeting with his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita in Washington, State Department spokesman Ned Price said, "The Foreign Minister affirmed that we continue to consider Morocco's autonomy plan as serious, credible and realistic, and includes an approach that can meet the aspirations of the people of the Sahara."

The statement added that the two ministers affirmed their "steadfast support" for the new UN envoy to the Saharan region, Staffan de Mistura, who is facing a difficult negotiating task.

The Sahara region has been the subject of a decades-old dispute between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, a region classified by the United Nations among "Non-Self-Governing Territories".

Rabat, which controls nearly 80% of the territory of the vast desert region, where major Moroccan development projects have been launched in recent years, proposes granting it autonomy under its sovereignty.

As for the Polisario Front, it calls for a referendum for self-determination under the supervision of the United Nations, which was decided upon the signing of the cease-fire agreement between the belligerents in September 1991.

During the era of former US President Donald Trump, the United States recognized in December 2020 Morocco's sovereignty over the former Spanish colony in exchange for the kingdom's normalization of its relations with Israel.

But since President Joe Biden's arrival at the White House in January, the administration has not issued any position regarding Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara region, only welcoming the Israeli-Moroccan agreement.

The meeting of the American and Moroccan ministers in Washington comes two days before an unprecedented visit by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz to Rabat.

The meeting between Blinken and Bourita touched upon Moroccan-Israeli relations. The statement said that the two ministers discussed "deepening relations between Morocco and Israel," with the approach of the first anniversary of the announcement of the normalization of relations between the two countries on December 22.