France shifts Western Sahara stance, backs Moroccan autonomy
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00:00First, we're breaking story and France has recognised Morocco's sovereignty over the
00:05disputed Western Sahara. The decision, shifting a decades-old position as a growing list of
00:11countries back Morocco, comes as a United Nations-mediated peace process remains stalled.
00:18The announcement dealing a blow to the pro-independence Polisario Front,
00:23which has claimed to be the legitimate representative of the Indigenous people
00:28since the end of the Spanish colonisation. Joining me now is our International Affairs
00:33Editor Angela Diffley. Angela, just how significant a move is this?
00:37It is significant. France has been walking a delicate balancing act, if you like, between
00:43Morocco and Algeria on this. The key thing to point out is that Algeria has long supported
00:50the Polisario Front, who maintain that Western Sahara, the region, should be independent and
00:58that they are the real representatives of the Indigenous Sahrawi people since the Spanish,
01:07who colonised that area, left. And this has been a very, very long-running conflict. Algeria has
01:14always been on the side of the Polisario Front. And France has now said, we recognise that the
01:21ongoing peace mediation is getting nowhere, it is stalled, and that the 2007 idea of autonomy
01:29for this area under Moroccan sovereignty, we now back that idea, says France. They warned Algeria
01:38that this was coming last week, but there is likely to be quite a backlash. When Spain recognised
01:45this, there were cancellations in flights, the Algerians sent back illegal immigrants to Spain
01:56and tried to cause some sort of chaos in that area. This will cause a significant bump in the
02:02always bumpy France-Algeria relations. But as you noted there, France was in a very difficult
02:10position. More and more of its allies in the West, the United States, Spain, more and more countries,
02:17Israel too, as part of the Abraham Accords, did recognise Morocco's sovereignty over this area as
02:26part of its normalisation of ties with Morocco. And so France was increasingly isolated on this.
02:33The role of Abu Dhabi is interesting. There has been a growing pressure on the side of helping
02:42Morocco on this from Abu Dhabi. And so there's a mix of pressures going on here as ever in the
02:48Middle East. And France has taken a step which will have consequences. Another surprising move
02:56from Emmanuel Macron, but not altogether unexpected.