It was a visit that would go down the news of Moroccan history.
U.S. Ambassador David Fischer on Sunday began the process of considering a consulate in Dakhla’s Western Sahara city.
“I am honored to visit this incredibly beautiful region that is so important to Morocco, and to begin the process of developing a U.S. diplomatic presence here,” Fischer said.
The much-anticipated trip came a month after Trump announced in a tweet that the United States had pushed Morocco over Western Sahara in exchange for the kingdom’s normalization of ties with Israel.
Rabat had long claimed supremacy for the region, a Spanish colony until 1975.
But the recognition caught the eye in Washington and elsewhere with many observers saying the move was not only in violation of international law, but also tended to lead to a easing of tensions between the Algerian-backed kingdom and Polisario Front, a movement that sought independence for the land.
Critics of the agreement say it weakens a UN-led process to find a lasting solution to the conflict, said the world group responsible for a referendum for the Indigenous Sahrawi people co -decide what happened to them: independence or independence within a wider alliance.
Morocco has consistently refused to host a view of independence for the Sahrawi, saying there was only independence on the table.
As Trump’s term in the oval office comes to an end, Al Jazeera takes a look at the promises involved in an incoming administration for President Joe Biden and the impact which is at the contract on the area.
What is at stake for the US?
Analysts say by acknowledging Morocco’s claims about Western Sahara, Washington is effectively weakening international law and the ways in which conflict is resolved.
This is something that the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Eliot Engel, specifically mentioned, was criticized about the move.
“Removing a legitimate multilateral path of conflict resolution only empowers countries such as Russia and China to stamp on and reward international rules and norms breaking borders and the right of free people, “Engel said at the time of the announcement.
Apparently, while welcoming Morocco’s normalization of ties with Israel, Republican Senator James Inhofe lamented that Trump had renounced the Sahrawi people’s right to self-government, saying it was a universal principle. which was consistent across U.S. administrations.
“The African Union, the United Nations, the International Court of Justice, and the European Union have all agreed – the people of Sahrawi have the right to decide their own future,” Ihofe said.
“The president is ill-advised by his team, he could have made this deal without trafficking human rights without a voice.”
Can Biden pay for the withdrawal of Morocco recognition?
Observers have a possible reversal that Trump recognized Morocco’s territorial claim as an easy win for the incoming Biden administration.
“Recognition is already common in this conflict and would mean aligning with the stance of other international players in the conflict,” said Joseph Huddleston, assistant professor at the School of Diplomacy and International Relations. Seton Hall National University.
Historically, there has been a widespread recognition of Western Sahara conflict.
In the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), as it is officially called, the number of countries recognizing its sovereignty over the land has dropped to 40 from more than twice that number 30 years ago.
Several African countries have also opposed the official position of the African Union, of which SADR is a founding member, to open a consulate in Western Sahara.
Biden’s administration would incur a cost for reversal, according to Huddleston, but it will stop compared to the impact for other countries seeking unilateral territorial expansion.
“At a very low cost, Biden can signal a new commitment to diplomacy, international law and cooperation, and bipartisan policy-making, not to mention the respected principle of individual freedom and self- management, “Huddleston told Al Jazeera.
How does the area affect this?
Those who recognize Trump as a result of Morocco’s sovereignty on the ground argue that it will bring more stability, with the kingdom more capable and equipped to deal with transnational threats harming a region North Africa and Europe.
In fact, within days of the agreement being signed, the U.S. government announced that it was moving forward with $ 1bn in the sale of drone and other precision-guided weapons to Morocco.
However, some analysts fear that the agreement will lead to more conflict in this volatile part of the world already wrapped up with a decade of war in Libya, as well as conflict in Mali and the surrounding Sahel area.
In November, Polisario, the independence-seeking movement for Western Sahara, abandoned a 29-year ceasefire agreement after Morocco intervened in the border town of Guerguerat near Mauritania to stop urged Sahrawi militants to come in and “free circulation” to restore civil and commercial traffic ”.
That program raised just as much of a tendency in the area in terms of armed conflict between the two sides.
The conflict “increases the risk that some of the complex constellation of armed groups in the Sahel will be drawn to war”, wrote Andrew Lebovich, a recent policy member at the European Council on Relations Foreign.
This would expand and further complicate the conflict, turning Western Sahara into a Libya-like complex theater, with neighboring Algeria able to put pressure, if only logically, to support the Polisario, he said.