Report: Syrian party urges president to designate Polisario as terrorist group

Report: Syrian party urges president to designate Polisario as terrorist group

For years, Syria supported the Polisario Front—a Sahrawi nationalist movement seeking independence in Western Sahara—and reportedly relied on its fighters, alongside Algerian forces, during the country’s prolonged civil war. But the political landscape is shifting following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, with new voices calling for a policy realignment that favors Morocco over the Polisario.

The Syrian Liberal Party, a minor opposition faction, has addressed a letter to Syria’s new president, Ahmed Al-Sharra, urging him to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara and designate the Polisario as a terrorist organization to be banned from Syrian territory, according to Israeli outlet i24 News.

In reference to the recent closure of the Polisario Front’s offices in Damascus, the party wrote: “We view this action as the culmination of ten years of effort to expose the true nature of this separatist and terrorist group, which is backed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and has served as an Iranian proxy in Syria’s internal conflict.”

The shift in tone coincides with a thaw in Syria-Morocco relations, marked by the reopening of Morocco’s embassy in Damascus after a 13-year diplomatic freeze.

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