DR ‹ › Under American impetus, Morocco and the Polisario Front are set to engage in new discussions on the future of Western Sahara this Sunday in Madrid, according to the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial. The confidential talks, hosted at the United States embassy, will also bring together Algeria and Mauritania, under the guidance of representatives from the Trump administration and with the participation of the UN Secretary-General's special envoy, Staffan de Mistura. Rabat is arriving at the negotiating table with a new proposal: a significantly expanded version of its autonomy plan, spanning around forty pages. Drafted by several royal advisers and key ministers, the revised document is intended to give greater institutional substance to the proposed autonomy for Morocco's southern provinces. Washington is pushing for the discussions to align with UN Security Council Resolution 2797, which established the primacy of the Moroccan initiative as a «serious and credible» basis for a lasting political solution. While Algeria and the Polisario Front continue to officially uphold the principle of self-determination, US diplomacy, now leading the process, aims to accelerate progress on an issue it has elevated to an «absolute priority». For Morocco, the stakes are twofold: consolidating international support for its autonomy plan and reducing the role of MINURSO, whose mandate is set to expire in the fall. Already weakened by budgetary constraints, the UN mission is no longer in a position to organize the referendum initially envisaged in 1991, a process that has since become politically obsolete. The talks come at a moment broadly favorable to the Kingdom, marked by explicit European Union backing for its initiative, as well as recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara by both the United States and France. Madrid, selected by Washington for practical reasons, was not involved in the preparation of the negotiations.
