The French-language Moroccan magazine Tel Quel — a great read on a country little covered elsewhere on the web — has a cover story on the history of underground negotiations between the Moroccan political class and the Sahraoui independence movement since the 1970s. Timely reading in context of South Africa’s recent controversial decision to recognize the Sahraoui Republic as a state, something that most Western states continue to refuse to do. It really seems that there is a missed opportunity to solve the problem once and for all, notably because official negotiations have come to a dead end (witness James Baker’s resignation as the UN’s negotiator in the matter and the postponement of a referendum), the players directly involved (Morocco, Algeria, the Polisario) seem reluctant to revive them and other governments that could influence them (the US, France, Spain) are distracted by the war on terror and other matters.
This is interesting and somewhat hopeful, but I’m reminded of all the “secret negotiations” that are constantly rumored to be in progress between Israel and various Palestinian factions. Such negotiations bore fruit once and gave birth to Oslo, but they’ve never been able to take things the rest of the way, and for good reason – a final settlement requires open acknowledgment and dialogue with the other side.