John Bolton : Western Sahara Remains One of the Greatest Unresolved Injustices

Western Sahara continues to stand as one of the greatest unresolved injustices in the world, despite the clarity of international law and numerous UN Security Council resolutions affirming the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination, said John Bolton, former U.S. diplomat and National Security Advisor.

In an interview with the Spanish outlet Otralectura, Bolton highlighted Morocco’s “obstinacy” as the primary reason behind the lack of progress in the Sahrawi territories. He noted that since the 1991 ceasefire and the creation of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), there had been a clear plan to hold a self-determination vote based on the 1974 Spanish census. However, he said, Morocco has repeatedly obstructed this “technically simple” process out of fear that the outcome would not serve its territorial ambitions.

Bolton criticized Rabat’s strategy of delaying the referendum while attempting to alter the demographic composition of the occupied territories by transferring Moroccan settlers. He stressed that true sovereignty must be based on the free will of the people, not on force or annexation. He also condemned Morocco’s ongoing disinformation campaigns targeting the Polisario Front, rejecting attempts to link it with extremist groups as “desperate propaganda with no credible evidence”—a claim he said is contradicted by what he personally witnessed during his visit to Sahrawi refugee camps over thirty years ago.

The former official further accused Morocco of lobbying aggressively in Washington and European capitals to push its “autonomy plan” as an alternative to the referendum, calling this campaign “a sign of fear of the Sahrawi people’s unwavering determination.”

Bolton also denounced the illegal exploitation of Western Sahara’s natural resources, including fishing agreements and phosphate extraction, calling such deals “illegal under international law as long as the status of Western Sahara remains unresolved.”

He concluded by urging the international community to stop turning a blind eye to the Sahrawi tragedy and to fulfill its moral and legal obligations. “Only a UN-supervised self-determination referendum can deliver a just and lasting solution,” he said.