LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Western Sahara Conflict: Spains
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Following traditional and prevalent views in academia, the author's account of the situation in the Western Sahara is extremely one-sided. No mention of Algeria and Spain's roles and not a word on the Cold War and the fact that Morocco is paying the price of having joined the US block while Algeria was a member of the Soviet club. It is a simple undeniable fact that there would not have been any conflict had Morocco pledged allegiance to the USSR during the Cold War. The other important fact is that had Spain left Southern Morocco in an honorable way instead of waiting to be dislodged by the Moroccan 1975 Green March there would not have been any conflict either.
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The Western Sahara problem began in 1975 when Morocco marched 350,000 unarmed civilians into the phosphate-rich desert to take control from Spain. After a war with neighboring Mauritania, Morocco cemented its control in 1979.
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Morocco and the Polisario Front are contesting the Western Sahara, a 266,000-square kilometer territory in the northwest corner of Africa. Named by the UN in 1975, the desert area was formerly a Spanish colony (1884-1976), known in the West as the Spanish Sahara. Spain handed over administrative authority to Morocco and Mauritania in a November 1975 tripartite agreement. Morocco's claims are based on the desire to restore the boundaries of the Almoravid Empire of the 11-12th centuries. Morocco ... sees Spain's withdrawal as the continuation of the gradual decolonization of Morocco, which will not be complete until Spain also gives up Ceuta and Melilla, the two remaining Spanish enclaves in northern Morocco. The day after Spain withdrew from the territory in 1976, the POLISARIO (Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro) proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) as a government in exile, and initiated a guerrilla war against Morocco and Mauritania.
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The Western Sahara was annexed by Morocco in 1976 after Spain withdrew its colonial administration. But the Algeria-based Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO) has been fighting since then for the desert strip on the coast of Northwest Africa to become an independent state.
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Due to Spain’s role in the settlement of the conflict, it is a positive sign to see the Spanish kingdom finally react to the crisis in the Western Sahara. This pressure is indeed necessary, mainly due to the Spanish influence on Morocco.
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To do that, it wants to play an active diplomacy role in resolving the conflict over Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. Morocco annexed the territory following Spain's pullout in 1975, and Spain does not recognise the annexation.
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