Republican Senator Ted Cruz has introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate aiming to classify the Polisario Front as a terrorist organization, accusing the Sahrawi movement of having ties with Iran and its networks in the region. The bill, titled the Polisario Front Terrorist Designation Act of 2026, seeks to compel the State Department to formally review this designation. DR ‹ › Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, and Rick Scott have introduced the «Polisario Front Terrorist Designation Act of 2026». This proposed legislation urges the Secretary of State to label the Polisario Front as a terrorist organization if it is confirmed to be collaborating with Iranian groups already designated as such. The senators are pushing for U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to «submit a detailed report to the relevant congressional committees, including the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on any collaboration between the Polisario Front and Iran-affiliated terrorist organizations». The report from the Secretary of State must specify whether «the Polisario Front has provided or received from an Iran-affiliated terrorist organization, either directly or through intermediaries: armed support during military operations; weapon systems, including firearms; drones, and related spare parts; or systems designed to detect, track, and engage aerial targets». This is a concern Morocco has consistently raised. Mounting Pressure on the Polisario Amid Tensions with Iran The legislation also addresses «military intelligence, including surveillance data, targeting information, and both electromagnetic and human intelligence, whether in raw or analyzed form». Senator Cruz remarked that «the Iranian regime aims to turn the Polisario Front into a West African counterpart of the Houthis, threatening the national security of the United States and its allies. The Polisario Front collaborates with Iranian terrorist factions, receives drones from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and facilitates the transport of weapons in the region for the Iranian regime». The bill advocates for imposing «the toughest anti-terrorism sanctions available to the United States to counter these threats». Upon designation, «the Polisario Front and its leaders would be cut off from the global financial system, international travel, and resources necessary for their terrorist activities», Cruz asserted. While such bills are common in Congress, their passage requires a lengthy legislative process and bipartisan support. This initiative follows another bill introduced on June 24, 2025, by lawmakers Joe Wilson (Republican) and Jimmy Panetta (Democrat), also seeking to classify the Polisario as a terrorist entity. It's worth noting that following the collapse of Bashar Al Assad's regime in Syria in December 2024, media outlets like the Washington Post and various research centers began investigating the covert ties between the Polisario and the Iran-affiliated Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah. Morocco severed diplomatic relations with Iran on May 1, 2018, citing Hezbollah's military support to the Polisario as the reason.
