{"id":2994,"date":"2025-06-26T19:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T19:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/?p=2994"},"modified":"2025-06-26T19:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T19:13:11","slug":"u-s-bill-to-label-polisario-a-terrorist-organization-legislative-shift-or-strategic-manoeuvre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/u-s-bill-to-label-polisario-a-terrorist-organization-legislative-shift-or-strategic-manoeuvre\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Bill to Label Polisario a Terrorist Organization: Legislative Shift or Strategic Manoeuvre?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"4712\" data-end=\"5018\">A U.S. Republican Congressman, Joe\u202fWilson, together with Democratic Representative Jimmy\u202fPanetta, today officially introduced a bill in Congress proposing to designate the Polisario Front as a foreign terrorist organization. The move follows several months of work by Wilson preparing the legislative text.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"5020\" data-end=\"5376\">In a post on X, Wilson described Polisario as a \u201cMarxist militia backed by Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia,\u201d asserting that it provides \u201ca strategic foothold for Tehran in Africa\u201d and destabilizes Morocco\u2014\u201ca U.S. ally for 248 years.\u201d He added that he is \u201cproud to present a bipartisan bill,\u201d indicating rare cross-party agreement over a foreign policy measure.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The Polisario is a Marxist militia backed by Iran, Hezbollah and Russia providing Iran a strategic outpost in Africa and destabilizing the Kingdom of Morocco, a U.S. ally for 248 years.<\/p>\n<p>Grateful to introduce bipartisan legislation with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepJimmyPanetta?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RepJimmyPanetta<\/a> to designate the Polisario\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ESQjgwefLo\">pic.twitter.com\/ESQjgwefLo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Joe Wilson (@RepJoeWilson) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepJoeWilson\/status\/1938260385636761747?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"5378\" data-end=\"5839\">Back on May\u202f22, Wilson hinted that President Trump \u201cwould settle this issue,\u201d calling Polisario a \u201creal threat to regional security,\u201d supported by adversaries of U.S. interests. On April\u202f11, 2025, he had pledged to support a \u201ctrue autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty\u201d and to move forward with legislation to classify Polisario as a terrorist group, citing Iranian and Russian support and labeling them as part of a broader \u201caxis of evil\u201d network in Africa.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"5841\" data-end=\"6112\">On May\u202f9, Wilson met with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser\u202fBourita, expressing gratitude for their partnership and commitment to regional peace and stability\u2014particularly in countering Polisario\u2019s influence. Wilson said, \u201cThe United States stands with Morocco for peace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"6114\" data-end=\"6637\">The bill is largely informed by a report from conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, written by Robert\u202fGreenway, titled <em data-start=\"6240\" data-end=\"6315\">\u201cWhy the United States must confront Polisario, a proxy terrorist actor.\u201d<\/em> The report calls on Washington to end its \u201cunjustifiable silence\u201d on Polisario\u2019s threat. It cites Polisario\u2019s use of Iranian-made drones, smuggling networks linked to Russian agents, and possible financing of jihadist groups in the Sahel, all within missile range of Gibraltar\u2014one of the world\u2019s key maritime chokepoints.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"6639\" data-end=\"6928\">The report also references a 1988 incident where Polisario missiles downed two U.S. aid agency planes, killing five Americans, to which the U.S. response was minimal. The report frames the current bill as an \u201cAmerican test of will against embedded terror proxies on NATO\u2019s southern flank.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"6930\" data-end=\"7184\">It claims that Polisario declared a \u201cstate of war\u201d in 2020, attacking Morocco\u2019s defensive wall and threatening foreign consulates and airlines\u2014marking a dangerous escalation toward unregulated armed conflict, with Algeria\u2019s direct complicity and support.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"7186\" data-end=\"7430\">The analysis highlights three pillars underpinning Polisario: Iranian military backing, growing Russian influence, and revenues from illegal trade in the Sahara. It notes a military infrastructure in Tindouf camps with over <strong data-start=\"7410\" data-end=\"7429\">40,000 fighters<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"7432\" data-end=\"7561\">Heritage\u2019s report traces Iranian support for Polisario to the 1980s, including Hezbollah-led training and documented drone usage.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"7563\" data-end=\"7766\">If adopted, the bill would enable the <strong data-start=\"7601\" data-end=\"7647\">freezing of Polisario\u2019s assets in the U.S.<\/strong>, a ban on its support or propaganda, and the <strong data-start=\"7693\" data-end=\"7732\">potential targeting of its sponsors<\/strong>, including Algeria, on U.S. soil.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"7768\" data-end=\"8030\">The proposal will now be sent to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and, if released, brought to a vote\u2014a major step that could profoundly impact Morocco\u2019s international leverage and set a legislative precedent while countering foreign-backed separatist forces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A U.S. Republican Congressman, Joe\u202fWilson, together with Democratic Representative Jimmy\u202fPanetta, today officially introduced a bill in Congress proposing to designate the Polisario Front as a foreign terrorist organization. The move follows several months of work by Wilson preparing the legislative text. In a post on X, Wilson described Polisario as a \u201cMarxist militia backed by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,43,76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"category-asia-americas","9":"category-the-maghreb"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2996,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2994\/revisions\/2996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}