A janitor cleans the entrance hall to the new conference centre of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Picture by Wolfgang Kumm DPA/PA Images. All rights reserved. While Morocco’s admission to the African Union (AU) last month should not make any tangible difference on the forty-year long Western Sahara conflict in the short term, it could however eventually trigger a new dynamic for a lasting solution.
The fact that the two North African foes, Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), are sitting next to one another in the AU’s premises, might make the union a better place juridically and politically to find a way to reconcile under the auspice of the United Nation (UN). In order to do so, a genuine and sincere position must be the sine qua non condition. However, in the current situation, it clearly appears that Morocco does not intend to depart from its initial position of preventing the organization of a referendum as stipulated in the UN’s charter.
Many analysts were surprised by Morocco’s demand to join the AU
