Interview / Khatri Eddouh, Ambassador of the SADR to Algeria: “The Makhzen is the vassal and disciple of the Israeli entity”
✍️ Translated by: Dr. Hana Saada
Algiers – September 2025 – In an extensive interview granted to La Patrie News just days ahead of several decisive UN meetings on the unfinished process of decolonization in Western Sahara, Khatri Eddouh, Ambassador of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in Algeria, left no room for ambiguity. His words were firm, uncompromising, and charged with historical resonance. For him, Morocco’s much-touted autonomy plan, championed by France since 2007, is stillborn and irrelevant. There can be no resolution, he insists, outside of international legality—legality that inexorably demands a referendum of self-determination for the Sahrawi people.
“The Makhzen has failed miserably on every front in its colonial and expansionist designs,” he asserts.
“All indicators on the ground point to one outcome: this decolonization struggle will be settled in favor of the Sahrawi people, through a referendum of self-determination.”
“Every element of information and analysis we receive confirms that the Makhzen regime is in the terminal phase of its agony.”
“Since its artificial creation by France, Morocco has never ceased to be a protectorate of the latter.”
“Morocco’s isolation is matched only by the growing international entrenchment of the Sahrawi State.”
“The Sahrawi and Palestinian causes are twin struggles—similar in many respects and across multiple domains.”
“Repression and plunder are identical in Western Sahara and Palestine. It is hardly surprising: the Makhzen is the vassal and the pupil of the Israeli entity.”
“To seduce or coerce certain states into supporting its colonial project, the Makhzen relies only on disreputable tools—blackmail and corruption.”
“Every country that has withdrawn recognition of the SADR, or opened a consulate in Laayoune, has done so under the corrupt influence of the Makhzen.”
“Blackmail is another of its tactics. The most glaring example is the weaponization of irregular migration. Morocco also resorts to drug trafficking, organized crime, and even terrorism, notably in the Sahel.”
“It is not the king who decides. Decisions concerning Morocco are made elsewhere and imposed upon its people.”
“The situation in the occupied territories is catastrophic. They have been transformed into an open-air prison.”
“An apartheid policy starves and impoverishes Sahrawis, stripping them of rights afforded to Moroccan settlers.”
“We regret that these abuses are regularly flagged by the United Nations, yet never lead to concrete, practical action. Morocco must be condemned, sanctioned, and held accountable.”
“The constancy and courage of Algeria must be saluted. Algiers defends, as a matter of principle, all oppressed peoples—not only the Sahrawis.”
La Patrie News: Today the confrontation between the Polisario Front and colonial Morocco has become open, with Rabat playing its last cards to impose what it calls “autonomy.” How do you assess this decisive battle on the diplomatic, political, media, and military fronts?
Khatri Eddouh: My thanks to La Patrie News for its consistent interest in the Sahrawi cause. Yes, this is a battle—perhaps its ultimate phase. We are now measuring the balance sheet and the invaluable gains secured through fifty years of uninterrupted struggle. The conclusion is clear: the Makhzen has failed miserably in every one of its colonial and expansionist ambitions.
On the military front, recall that Morocco was forced in 1991 to sign a ceasefire agreement with us. It had lost the war, compelled to formally commit in writing to organizing a referendum of self-determination for our people. On the diplomatic front, the SADR secured a place of prominence in the Organization of African Unity during the 1980s, to the point of becoming a founding member of the African Union. Morocco, in fact, was compelled to acknowledge the SADR by royal decree in 2019 before being allowed to rejoin the AU.
On the legal front, we continue to amass decisive and irrefutable victories. The latest, in October of last year, came from the Court of Justice of the European Union, which ruled unambiguously on the distinction between Western Sahara and Morocco, declaring null and void any commercial agreement encompassing our territory, and affirming the Polisario Front as the sole legitimate representative of the Sahrawi people.
As if this were not enough, Morocco has been humiliated in its repeated claims that Sahrawis accept its colonial presence. The Gdeim Izik protest camp delivered a crushing rebuttal in 2010, leading to dozens of political prisoners, subjected to torture and unjust sentencing. All evidence and ground realities point to the same conclusion: this decolonization struggle will culminate in a referendum of self-determination.
That is why Morocco’s autonomy plan is a stillborn project. It amounts to nothing but a perpetuation of colonialism and a fait accompli—an annexation in all but name. Its illegality is glaringly obvious. Even as the Makhzen attempts to corrupt individuals it parades as Sahrawis, presenting them during its so-called “Green March” commemorations as supporters of its colonial agenda, it will fail—as it has failed in every previous attempt of the same nature.
Recent scandals that have engulfed Morocco’s security and intelligence apparatus have laid bare a ferocious war of succession within the royal palace, at a time when the king himself is visibly weakening. Does this suggest that we are on the brink of the imminent collapse of this corrupt and expansionist regime?
All available data, information, and analyses confirm that the Makhzen regime has entered the terminal phase of its agony. This scenario is now seriously entertained in Western capitals, even in those traditionally counted among its closest allies. While some remain cautious about predicting an abrupt implosion of this feudal monarchy, seasoned observers and analysts agree on one inevitability: the departure of Mohammed VI.
You are undoubtedly aware that the monarch has long been absent from, and detached from, the affairs of his own kingdom. He has never been the true decision-maker. Inevitably, this vacuum of leadership gave rise to bitter internal conflicts, now exacerbated by the fierce battle of succession raging in the inner sanctums of the Makhzen. The war is openly fought between the partisans of Mohammed VI’s brother and those of his son. To this equation are added the late mother of the monarch and his sisters, whose influence further muddied the waters. Matters escalated dangerously when the intelligence services themselves entered the fray. What was once a latent struggle has burst into the open. The Makhzen’s dirty laundry is no longer hidden—it is now being washed in full public view. The proliferation of scandals and deliberate leaks, orchestrated from within the regime’s own shadowy structures, speaks volumes.
Add to this the decisive role of foreign powers, which have always acted as guarantors of this regime’s survival. Since its artificial creation by France, Morocco has never ceased to function as a French protectorate. Today, both Paris and Rabat are unable to conceal the rot. Who can forget the repeated pilgrimages of Chirac, Sarkozy, or Mitterrand to Rabat—not as visits of state, but as occasions to dictate orders, to manage crises, and to desperately attempt to shore up the remnants of a regime in disintegration? For France, Morocco remains its last strategic gateway to Africa.
The irony, however, lies in the fact that Macron’s France itself is now in dire need of protection…
Indeed. If such grave and numerous scandals are erupting into broad daylight, it is because the Makhzen’s protector itself is in an advanced state of decay. Add to this the global transformations now reshaping the world order. Morocco cannot insulate itself from these seismic changes. Credible and well-founded theses suggest that Morocco may be next in line to experience a violent revolution.
The UN Security Council is expected to convene in October to address the question of decolonization. What are your expectations from this meeting?
Several important meetings are scheduled ahead of the Security Council’s session. All decisions will hinge on the reports prepared by Antonio Guterres and Staffan de Mistura. These reports have consistently reiterated the legal nature of this dossier, which is unequivocally classified as a matter of decolonization. Consequently, the referendum on self-determination remains an unavoidable necessity. The United Nations bears the legal and moral responsibility to ensure that the Sahrawi people exercise their inalienable right to self-determination.
Rumors have circulated that Morocco sought to convene, in recent months, an international conference in the United Arab Emirates to promote its stillborn autonomy plan. It quietly abandoned this endeavor after the humiliating fiasco it faced. Now, it appears determined to revive this maneuver on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Yet such attempts at direct or indirect pressure stand no chance of yielding tangible results. The reality of this decolonization dossier is starkly clear. Morocco and its allies will try to tamper with the mandate of MINURSO. But this too is a lost cause, for the very name of the mission—“United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara”—is rooted in the principle of self-determination.
This final battle will be brutal. The dying regime of the Makhzen is throwing what remains of its weight into it. Meanwhile, Morocco’s internal situation is nothing short of explosive—politically, socioeconomically, institutionally, and geostrategically—particularly in light of the unfolding tragedy in Gaza. The isolation of Morocco grows deeper by the day, in stark contrast to the increasingly entrenched and expanding recognition of the Sahrawi State on the international stage.
The Sahrawi cause and the Palestinian cause bear striking similarities: occupation, crimes, ethnic cleansing, and repression. Morocco went even further, bartering away its so-called national cause by normalizing ties with the Zionist entity in exchange for Trump’s recognition of the so-called “Moroccanness of the Sahara.” What do you say to those who refuse such a comparison, often for blatantly racist reasons?
The Sahrawi and Palestinian causes are, in truth, mirror images. They are twin struggles. Both confront colonial occupation, the denial of self-determination, apartheid policies, repression, political imprisonment, torture, politicized courts, heavy-handed and unjust sentences, and a global system of lies and complicity. The same methods of plunder and repression are deployed in occupied Western Sahara and in Palestine. And that should come as no surprise: the Makhzen is nothing more than a vassal and a disciple of the Zionist entity.
In fact, the Moroccan monarchy, under Washington’s dictate, went far beyond symbolic normalization. It sealed with Tel Aviv a strategic security pact. This is why, since its criminal invasion of Western Sahara in 1975, Morocco has consistently benefited from Israeli military assistance and political backing. Today, this unholy alliance extends across virtually every domain—diplomatic, military, economic, and intelligence-related—cementing their complicity in repression and expansionism.
For half a century, the Makhzen has wielded dirty weapons: bribery, corruption, and blackmail. The “Morocco-gate” scandal and the Pegasus affair are but the tip of the iceberg. What weapons do you have at your disposal to counter this unconventional war?
The arsenal of the Makhzen is indeed shameful: bribery and blackmail. Its corruption campaigns target above all France and Spain, though their reach extends across Africa, Latin America, and beyond, with varying degrees of success. Spanish socialist governments, from Felipe González to Pedro Sánchez, have dragged behind them an appalling trail of scandals and servitude to Moroccan blackmail. Even the European Parliament has been poisoned at its very core by the same methods.
Every country that has withdrawn recognition of the Sahrawi Republic, or announced the opening of a so-called “consulate” in Laayoune, has done so under the weight of Moroccan corruption. Yet the evidence of this rot lies in the reversals: when governments change, many of these states return to legality and reaffirm the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination.
The blackmail extends even further: Morocco shamelessly manipulates clandestine migration flows, weaponizes drug trafficking, fuels organized crime, and, most gravely, fosters terrorism in the Sahel. The abnormal positions taken by some governments toward Algeria cannot be understood outside this framework of Moroccan extortion.
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a founding member of the African Union, whereas Morocco only rejoined after officially recognizing the RASD. What do you expect from the African Union today in terms of supporting the liberation process? And how do you plan to counter Morocco’s dangerous maneuvers within the Union’s institutions?
Opportunism is the Makhzen’s hallmark. Its positions shift as often as the winds of power. Hassan II himself recognized the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination at the OAU summit in Nairobi, only to later retract it. Such spectacular betrayals are legion in Moroccan political life. This is a regime that is unstable and utterly untrustworthy.
In 1991, Morocco signed a ceasefire agreement with us, explicitly committing to a referendum on self-determination. It reneged. In 2007, it accepted a new cycle of direct negotiations under UN auspices. We were even prepared to place its autonomy proposal among the three options to be voted on in the referendum. Again, Morocco reneged in 2012. In 2017, it returned to the AU, only after having officially recognized the RASD by royal decree. And yet, despite these glaring contradictions, the Makhzen persists in its suicidal, deceitful headlong rush.
But the masks have fallen. No one is fooled anymore. Take the Constitutive Act of the AU, ratified by Mohammed VI himself in 2017: it explicitly prohibits the occupation of any state or territory by force, and requires strict respect for the borders inherited from decolonization. Morocco is in flagrant violation of both.
Let us be clear: it is not the Moroccan king who decides. Those who dictate Morocco’s actions receive their orders from elsewhere. Morocco is but a sordid instrument in the service of external powers, executing agendas that sow instability and chaos in the Maghreb, the Sahel, and beyond.
On the ground, the Polisario is convinced that armed struggle remains the inevitable option: freedom is seized, never granted. What is the current reality of the military situation on the fronts?
In every conceivable scenario, armed struggle remains for us a matter of principle, an inalienable right. Even when we signed the 1991 ceasefire agreement, we merely suspended our military campaign in the expectation that a referendum on self-determination would be held. Once it became clear that Morocco had no genuine intention of honoring that commitment, we resumed—on November 13, 2020—our legitimate armed struggle. This will continue until final and total victory. Freedom is never bestowed; it must be wrested by force.
Our battle rages along the shameful sand wall, erected with the assistance of the Israeli army. Skirmishes and attacks never ceased, contrary to the false narrative propagated by the Makhzen, which claims the conflict to be of “low intensity.” The multiple reports of the UN Secretary-General confirm the undeniable reality of an ongoing armed conflict.
How would you describe the daily suffering endured by Sahrawis under occupation?
The situation in the occupied territories is nothing short of catastrophic. These lands have been turned into a vast open-air prison. They are systematically sealed off from human rights defenders, journalists, parliamentarians, and lawyers. Repression there is merciless, carried out behind closed doors. To this day, at least 400 Sahrawis remain disappeared, their fate unknown. Dozens more languish in Moroccan prisons, subjected to the most appalling torture and abuse. Many are condemned to extremely heavy sentences and held in prisons located thousands of kilometers from their families, deliberately making visits nearly impossible.
Population colonialism has further exacerbated this injustice: Sahrawis are being reduced to a minority in their own land due to massive Moroccan settlement. An apartheid policy starves and impoverishes Sahrawis, stripping them of rights routinely granted to Moroccan settlers. Numerous credible and well-documented reports confirm this alarming reality.
The natural wealth of Western Sahara does not benefit the Sahrawi people. Instead, it is exploited to finance Morocco’s colonial war of occupation and to grease the palms of foreign chancelleries in order to secure support for its criminal policies.
The prisoners of Gdeim Izik and other political detainees remain deprived of their most basic rights, despite repeated condemnations from the United Nations. How long will the Makhzen continue to enjoy such impunity?
This is a deeply troubling humanitarian crisis that the international community must urgently address. Such scandalous impunity has already gone on for far too long. UN bodies must finally take decisive action. We call on the international community to exert real pressure on Morocco, compelling it to abide by international law and to respect the most fundamental rights of Sahrawi citizens.
Morocco must acknowledge that it is a colonial occupier in Western Sahara and recognize that Sahrawi prisoners fighting for freedom are, in essence, prisoners of conscience. On this legal basis alone should the international community engage with Morocco.
It is regrettable that these violations, abuses, and crimes are regularly noted by the United Nations, yet no concrete or practical measures ever follow. Morocco must be condemned, sanctioned, and held to account. Coddled and shielded by the West, the Moroccan regime dares to commit the gravest abuses with impunity—not only against Sahrawis, but even against its own subjects.
Morocco’s Systematic Plunder of Western Sahara’s Wealth: Phosphates, Fisheries, and Minerals – Polisario’s Legal and Diplomatic Battle Intensifies
Our sovereign right over our natural resources is inseparably bound to our right to self-determination. The most recent ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) — final and binding — went even further by affirming unequivocally that only the Polisario Front has the legal authority to speak and act on behalf of the Sahrawi people. Despite this, Morocco, in collusion with certain accomplices within the European Union, continues to devise ways to bypass or disregard this landmark decision. France has even dared to announce investments in the occupied territories, in blatant violation of international law.
At the same time, Morocco seeks to lure foreign capital, attempting to entangle investors in its colonial and expansionist project. It is precisely to consolidate and safeguard these hard-won legal and political achievements that President Brahim Ghali established a dedicated task force under the leadership of a special adviser. This legal and diplomatic front is of paramount importance to us. A considerable number of renowned jurists and principled European officials lend their expertise to this effort. Together, we rigorously track unlawful agreements and denounce the systematic plunder of our resources — from phosphates and fisheries to agricultural products, which must be clearly labeled and traced back to their true origin.
On Relations with Algeria
Our relations with Algeria are exceptional, deeply rooted in history and cemented by shared struggles for independence. What unites us above all is our unshakable adherence to the principle that all peoples — without exception — have the right to self-determination, freedom, and dignity. From this perspective, Algeria’s consistency and moral courage deserve the highest recognition.
Algiers has always stood, by principle, with oppressed peoples across the world — not only the Sahrawis. Algeria invariably aligns itself with just and noble causes, as evidenced by its resolute and courageous positions at the UN Security Council in defense of Palestine and Western Sahara. Added to this is the bond of proximity and genuine neighborliness that has historically linked us.
Indeed, though our border with Algeria stretches for only a few kilometers, that corridor proved to be a lifeline when French and Moroccan aircraft targeted us with napalm bombs. In 1975, we faced the prospect of complete extermination — men, women, and children alike — had Algeria not opened its borders to us. For that, our gratitude to Algeria will remain eternal.
The noble, altruistic, and selfless hospitality that Algeria has generously extended to us for more than fifty years endures unwavering, strong, and fraternal. We remain deeply and perpetually indebted to Algeria — the homeland of principles, courage, peoples’ rights, dignity, freedoms, and pride.
Interview by Mohamed Abdoun – La Patrie News
Translated by Dr. Hana Saada – Dzair Tube
Translated from:
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