The Grand Deal of Shame: How France and the UAE Are Paying the Price for Betraying the Sahrawi Cause by Participating in the Legitimization of the Moroccan Occupation
✍️ BY: Maamar Gani
Algiers – October 2025 – What is unfolding today in the Western Sahara dossier can no longer be described as a conventional diplomatic maneuver or an exhausted mediation exercise between two parties; it has evolved into a deliberate and systematic attempt to rewrite political reality by force. Behind the scenes—under what has become almost open complicity—a draft resolution is being pushed toward the United Nations Security Council, promoted by the West through the United States, and presented as an official framework to transform Morocco’s “sovereignty” over the territory into an established fact—completely disregarding the Sahrawi people’s inalienable right to self-determination. At the forefront of these moves stand France and the United Arab Emirates, acting as the chief architects of this controversial project.
France, once among the leading voices defending the principle of decolonization in Western Sahara and the Sahrawi people’s right to freedom, has now undertaken a flagrant and unprecedented shift. It openly endorses Morocco’s so-called “autonomy plan,” selling both its history and its moral standing in a single transaction. Simultaneously, the UAE employs its immense wealth as a bargaining chip—turning a political issue into an investment deal, one that is justified through financial influence and security alliances rather than through justice or international legality.
What is taking place is not a transient experiment in foreign policy—it is, in essence, a diplomatic crime, cloaked in the rhetoric of “realism” while being, at its core, the sale of a people’s right and the imposition of a settlement dictated from abroad. The United Nations, once a platform for justice, is being reduced to a stage for legitimizing occupation, while international law is weaponized to replace the will of the people with a fabricated consensus.
This trajectory cannot be analyzed without addressing the roles of the powers both backing and benefiting from it: France, the nation that helped craft the post–World War II order and the principle of self-determination; and the UAE, which has transformed itself into a political finance hub—an investor whose partnerships are conditioned on allegiance. Meanwhile, the Sahrawi people, who have endured nearly five decades in refugee camps, are now being asked to sell their future under unfair and humiliating terms. This is not peace; it is a mockery of reconciliation without justice.
From a legal perspective, the danger lies not only in the content of the proposed resolution but in what it represents—a flagrant violation of the core principles of the United Nations. When the only genuine path forward—a free and fair referendum—is closed off, legitimacy collapses under the weight of a colonial adjustment disguised as reform. The Polisario Front and Algeria, which have firmly rejected this project, are not merely regional actors; they stand as guardians of the very international legal principles now under attack.
However, this Western–Emirati alignment does not come without consequences. It drags the region toward three perilous outcomes:
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A profound erosion of the credibility of the United Nations and its institutions, which are being transformed from mediators of peace into instruments of political manipulation.
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The destabilization of North Africa and the Sahel, as the project opens the door to a deeper regional conflict.
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A dangerous precedent, signaling that power, wealth, and geopolitical bargaining—not law or the will of peoples—now dictate borders and sovereignties.
Most alarming is the so-called “realistic solution” being championed—nothing more than a disguised consolidation of occupation: an autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty, without a referendum, without a genuine transition, and without guarantees. Can this truly be called a solution? It is rather a political fabrication tailored to the occupier’s interests, packaged in the language of “development,” “partnerships,” and “investment opportunities.”
Responsibility lies clearly with those who enabled this betrayal: France, which chose economic gain over moral principle; the UAE, which turned politics into a financial wager; and the international community, which remains shamefully absent from its obligations toward the rights of oppressed peoples. Every party complicit in or silent before this reversal of international legitimacy will carry a permanent stain on its record. History will not absolve those who sided with the powerful against the just.
Amid these bleak developments, one truth remains untarnished in the hearts of those who stand with the Sahrawi cause: freedom cannot be bought, dignity cannot be traded, and legitimate rights cannot be erased by consensus. The Sahrawi struggle embodies the unyielding spirit of a people who refuse to be silenced or commodified. Those who gamble on circumventing this right will soon witness the birth of a multiplied anger—not from one people alone, but from the collective conscience of a world weary of politics governed by greed and coercion.
Ultimately, true peace will not be drafted in the offices of Paris, Abu Dhabi, or Washington. It will only be achieved through a sincere referendum in which the Sahrawi people freely determine their destiny. Any project proposed outside this framework is nothing but a deal of shame—a disgrace to international justice and a betrayal of humanity’s moral compass.
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