Category: Western Sahara/Morocco
Western Sahara/Morocco
Interview: Africa’s Last Colony, Western Sahara
Pacifica Radio/WPFW, Washington DC, August 15, 2025 (56 mins.)
Zunes and Professor Jacob Mundy (Colgate University, NY), his co-author of “Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution,” critique the bogus attempted designation of Western Sahara as a “terrorist” entity.
Bipartisan US Push Tries to Label Democratic African Government as “Terrorist”
Truthout, August 2, 2025, By Stephen Zunes [podcast & source]
The UN treats the Polisario as the legitimate representative of the Western Sahara people. Washington’s designation of armed groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) has always been politicized, but it may now reach a new level of absurdity thanks to a bipartisan resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced by Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina) and Jimmy Panetta (D-California), targeting the Frente Polisario, the government of Western Sahara, officially known as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Morocco, an important U.S. ally, invaded Western Sahara in 1975 on the eve of its independence from Spain and currently occupies nearly 80 percent of the territory…
Panetta’s false charges of terrorism make no sense
First published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel July 11, 2025, by Stephen Zunes:
“My guest editorial from the Santa Cruz Sentinel takes on Rep. Jimmy Panetta for his bill that would designate the government of Western Sahara as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, even though they have never engaged in terrorism nor ever collaborated with a terrorist group.”
Did Washington Post amplify Moroccan propaganda?
African Digital Democracy Observatory/
Disinfo.Africa quoted Zunes June 27, 2025:
Washington Post echoes disputed claims that Saharan mercenaries were captured in Aleppo: “On April 12, 2025, the Washington Post published a story describing the new Syrian government’s alleged efforts to dismantle illicit Iranian supply lines running through southern Syria… largely to aid Hezbollah in their war against Israel [and] implicated soldiers from an Algerian-based nationalist movement in the Iran-Hezbollah conspiracy. [But] this TruthAfrica investigation shows, the central pieces of evidence for these allegations appear to be a distortion of an Algerian ambassador’s statements and an inauthentic document… Steven Zunes told Truth Africa, “The Hezbollah/Iran connection is utter nonsense… The idea that [The Polisario Front] would be lying with this autocratic, reactionary Shia group,’ he told us, ‘just seems quite absurd….”
Interview: Status of Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara for Emmaus, Stockholm
ALSO SEE Dr. Zunes’s book and website:
Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution
Emmaus Artikel 2, Stockholm May 2024 An hour-long May 2024 interview (in English) of Dr. Stephen Zunes and a prominent Sahrawi activist in Stockholm on the situation in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara and international legal implications. More at Western-Sahara.org
Not only the fate of the people of Western Sahara is at stake.
Emmaus Artikel 2, Stockholm May 2024
(Dr. Stephen Zunes is quoted extensively): The opposition to Trump’s rushed and unrighteous recognition of Morocco’s alleged sovereignty over Western Sahara prompts President Biden to correct this mistake… Biden could resend the U.S. recognition with the stroke of a pen, however, this has put him in something of a dilemma… More at Western-Sahara.org
West’s role in Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara
April 20, 2024: On Dr. Zunes’ recent talk at the Gothenburg Science Festival on the West’s role in the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. More at Western-Sahara.org
Comparing US policy towards Palestinian & Western Saharan struggles for self-determination
U.S. Campaign to End the Moroccan Occupation newsletter April 11, 2024: A short essay comparing U.S. policy towards the Palestinian and Western Saharan struggles for self-determination:
Western Sahara. [source]. More at Western-Sahara.org.
Interviews: Western Sahara/Morocco
- Professor Stephen Zunes on Western Sahara, Russia, Ukraine, Biden, Israel and Morocco. February 2023
- This is a very short segment of a story about Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara on a Swedish television network (in English, 2 min., 02/27/2024).
- Interview for a podcast on U.S. policy towards Israel/Palestine and Morocco/Western Sahara:
Part I (37 min) & Part II (20 min) January 2024. - Transcript of interview for La Tribune Diplomatique Internationale, Jan. 20, 2024 (English) making the links between the Israeli and Moroccan occupations
- Lecture: Occupied: Palestine and Western Sahara
(April 2024, Copenhagen, Global Aktion, 1:43 video) - Also see Western Sahara Uncovered, Episode 01: History of Western Sahara (5-min. video below, November 2023).
Find more at Western-Sahara.org.
Russian aggression, US hypocrisy and is UAE a safe haven for oligarchs?
The Progressive, March 1, 2022: There’s No Justification for Russia’s Aggression, But U.S. Double Standards on Illegal War Are Hard to Stomach: Nothing can excuse Putin’s invasion, but the hypocrisy could hardly be more striking.
Al Jazeera quotes Zunes March 7, 14 and 29
*The limits of Iran’s influence on Yemen’s Houthi rebels
*Analysis: Can the UAE be a safe haven for Russian oligarchs?
*Can Russia return to the world stage as other aggressors have?
Find more at Western-Sahara.org.
Interview: Speaking of Palestine: The Occupations of Western Sahara and Palestine
KBBF Radio: Zunes on the occupation of Western Sahara and much more, plus Palestine Update and some poems by Naomi Shihab Nye.
Find more at Western-Sahara.org.
KZFR Peace and Justice: U.S. and Western Sahara
KZFR public radio, Chico, CA, 11 February 2022
[Audio’s no longer available. Find more at Western-Sahara.org]
U.S. and Western Sahara
WHMP Bill Newman Show, KZFR public radio, Chico, CA, 9 Feb. 2022 (Zunes begins at 39:00). Find more at Western-Sahara.org.
WBAI Leonard Lopate at Large: Western Sahara and U.S. Policy
WBAI FM, NYC, February 7, 2022: Stephen Zunes discusses his updated edition of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution.
Western Sahara: Oberlin Club of Washington, DC
January 24, 2022 Zoom: The UN and the World Court have called for the Sahrawi population to be allowed the right of self-determination. The U.S. meanwhile, remains the only country in the world that formally recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. The presentation is timed with the release of the second revised expanded edition of Professor Zunes’ book Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution, and his return from visiting Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria. Professor Zunes will assess the human rights situation under the Moroccan rule, the nonviolent and armed resistance to the occupation, U.S. policy, and more. Find more at Western-Sahara.org.
Biden’s Dangerous Refusal to Reverse Trump’s Western Sahara Policy
Foreign Policy In Focus, Jan. 21, 2022: In his final weeks in office, President Donald Trump stunned the international community in formally recognizing Western Sahara as part of Morocco. Morocco has occupied much of its southern neighbor since 1975, when it invaded and annexed the former Spanish colony in defiance of the United Nations Security Council and a landmark ruling of the International Court of Justice… Find more at Western-Sahara.org.
US Western Sahara stance emboldens Putin
The Progressive Jan. 6, 2022, by Stephen Zunes [source]
The threat of further Russian aggression against Ukraine is very real. Unfortunately, the Biden administration is in a weak position to lead an international response. Find more at Western-Sahara.org.
Tufts University: Western Sahara
12 November 2021 (begins at 23:10, but item is no longer available).
See the Archives, Blog and Reviews at Western-Sahara.org.
Stephen Zunes, co-author (with Jacob Mundy) of book ‘Western Sahara’
See WSahara.stephenzunes.org for reviews, related articles, audio and video, and to order the book.