On the sidelines of the 4th Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF 2025), held from September 4 to 10 in Algiers, the Polisario Front called on African and international investors to view Western Sahara as a viable investment destination. The appeal was made by its self-styled «Minister of Foreign Affairs», Mohamed Salem Beissat, in an interview with an official Algerian media outlet. «We are in contact with a significant number of economic decision-makers, states, and banks eager to participate and invest in Western Sahara», Beissat claimed, highlighting the region's natural resources. However, in audio messages reviewed by Yabiladi, Sahrawis ironically asked the «minister» to clarify the geographical location of the territory he was referring to. Since the Polisario's withdrawal from the ceasefire on November 13, 2020, originally concluded on September 26, 1991 with the UN, the movement has effectively lost control of its so-called «liberated territories» east of the Sand Wall. Following the October 4, 2024, ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which excluded the Sahara from trade agreements with Morocco, the Polisario appealed to the EU to open negotiations. The request was made in a letter from Brahim Ghali to the Polish Prime Minister, whose country held the rotating EU presidency from January 1 to June 30, 2025. «The Polisario is ready to engage in negotiations with the European Union to establish a framework that respects the Court's decisions and guarantees the interests of the Sahrawi people, who hold permanent sovereignty over the natural resources of Western Sahara», Ghali wrote. So far, the European Union has remained unresponsive to these calls from the Polisario.
