Page "History of Morocco" Paragraph 66

A defining theme of Moroccan history and foreign policy is the bitter struggle over Western Sahara.

Moroccan claims to Western Sahara date to the 11th century.

However, in August 1974, Spain formally acknowledged the 1966 United Nations ( UN ) resolution calling for a referendum on the future status of Western Sahara and requested that a plebiscite be conducted under UN supervision.

A UN visiting mission reported in October 1975 that an overwhelming majority of the Saharan people desired independence.

Morocco protested the proposed referendum and took its case to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, which ruled that despite historical “ ties of allegiance ” between Morocco and the tribes of Western Sahara, there was no legal justification for departing from the UN position on self-determination.

Spain, meanwhile, had declared that even in the absence of a referendum, it intended to surrender political control of Western Sahara, and Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania convened a tripartite conference to resolve the territory ’ s future.

But Madrid also announced that it was opening independence talks with the Algerian-backed Saharan independence movement known as the Polisario Front.