Western Sahara is once again at the center of international diplomatic attention, and this time the praise is coming from an unexpected corner: a French legal scholar who has spent years studying the dispute. Hubert Seillan, the author of several books on the Moroccan Sahara, argues that the diplomatic gains Rabat has registered since last Friday’s vote at the United Nations are anything but accidental. They are, he says, the natural outcome of a strategy Morocco has pursued steadily for two decades under King Mohammed VI.
Speaking to the Maghreb Arab Press agency, Seillan pointed to the Moroccan autonomy plan, which now enjoys the backing of a wide majority of states worldwide. That support, he noted, pushed the UN Security Council to conclude in Resolution 2797 that the initiative must serve as the basis for a just, lasting and mutually acceptable settlement of the decades-old dispute. For Seillan, the ruling reflects years of patient diplomatic groundwork rather than a sudden shift in fortune.
The jurist, who has filed several petitions before the UN’s Fourth Committee, was blunt in his assessment of the peacekeeping mission that has operated on the ground for thirty-five years. MINURSO, he said, « has long looked like a mechanism overtaken by time. » In his view, the phrase captures the broader failure of the UN-led process to fully account for the wide international consensus that has gradually formed around Morocco’s position.
Seillan also pointed to the growing number of foreign consulates opened in Laâyoune and Dakhla as further evidence of expanding international recognition of Moroccan legitimacy over the territory. He argued that Friday’s vote reinforces the momentum set in motion by Resolution 2797 and now makes it possible to envisage a durable resolution to the regional dispute.
He ended on a forward-looking note, suggesting Morocco is well placed to prove its commitment to the aspirations shared by the vast majority of African nations and the hopes of European partners regarding its southern provinces. The real stake in consolidating Moroccan legitimacy, he concluded, lies above all in securing peace and development across West Africa.
