'A reversal of decades-long policy': France backs Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara
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00:00Now to our top story, and France has recognized Morocco's sovereignty over the dispute at Western
00:05Sahara. The decision shifting a decades-old position as a growing list of nations back
00:11Morocco comes as a UN-mediated peace process remains stalled. The decision dealing a blow
00:18to the pro-independence Polisario Front, which has claimed to be the legitimate representative
00:23of the indigenous population in the region since the end of Spanish rule. Joining me now is William
00:29Lawrence, an international affairs specialist at the American University in Washington DC.
00:34William, thank you for your time. Just how significant a move is this?
00:40The way I'm looking at this is it's both huge and it's small. On the huge side, this is a reversal
00:46of a decades-long French policy. It's a blow to the Algerians and to Polisario. It's gone not quite
00:56as far as Trump, but a long way in the distance of the Trump administration's recognition of the
01:02Moroccan claims to Western Sahara. And it's going to create a new rapprochement with Morocco,
01:10excuse me, and a distancing from Algeria, maybe, excuse me, a diplomatic incident,
01:17maybe withdrawal of ambassadors, that sort of thing. But it's small in the sense that
01:21France, since 2007, has always preferred the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Western Sahara.
01:29It's backed Morocco all the way back to the original wars around this and since then.
01:36And that Morocco-French cooperation behind the scenes has always dominated the discussions at
01:42the UN, even though publicly France had a more neutral position. And so how this plays out will
01:48be very interesting. But I've talked today to representatives of the Moroccan government,
01:55people close to the Algerian government, to Polisario, and depending on their point of
01:59view, they're either upplaying or downplaying the significance of this.
02:03One impact it will have is that bumpy relationship between Algeria and France, right?
02:11Absolutely. And yet, with the people I was talking to today who are close to the
02:17people in power in Algeria, were saying that the relationship with France is so important
02:23that it won't be as bumpy as some people think, because there's been an effort at
02:27rapprochement going on. They view this as having more to do with French domestic politics,
02:33that the Front National had said that they were going to recognize the Moroccan claim,
02:38and that the Macron government, which they see a little bit as a lame duck government,
02:42is sort of making this gesture before they go out of power. I think this is a bit of an
02:47overstatement. But it is interesting that they're viewing this more in terms of French domestic
02:52politics rather than international geopolitics. As you may know, the Algerians put up something on,
02:58I think, one of the government websites last Thursday, because I think the French government
03:04had briefed them to warn them of this, and then immediately took it down. And so already the sort
03:09of exclamation and mitigation efforts between France and Algeria are going on,
03:16and that will continue in the coming days and weeks.