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Published On 30 Nov 202530 Nov 2025
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In October 2025, a group of powerful states attempted to do in a few days what fifty years of occupation, war and repression had failed to achieve: close the file of Western Sahara in Morocco’s favour at the UN Security Council.
Using diplomatic blitzkrieg tactics, Morocco’s allies pushed a strongly pro-Moroccan “zero draft” resolution that they hoped to pass as a fait accompli. Had it gone through unchanged, Western Sahara would have been pushed closer toward erasure as a decolonisation question and recast as an internal Moroccan matter.
Instead, on 31 October 2025, the Council adopted Resolution 2797. Far from rubber-stamping Morocco’s claims, the final text reaffirmed every previous Security Council resolution on Western Sahara and restated an essential truth: any political solution must be just, mutually acceptable and consistent with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, including the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination.
Several Council members pushed back against the original US-circulated draft, which had aligned closely with Morocco’s position. Their amendments restored the text to the legal framework that has governed this issue for decades. The result is not perfect, but it is unmistakable: Western Sahara remains an unfinished decolonisation process. It is not a settled dispute, and it is not Morocco’s to absorb.
Had the Council endorsed the early draft, it would have risked becoming a 21st-century version of the Berlin Conference, a chamber where great powers redraw Africa’s map without Africans present. In 1884–85, European states divided a continent in ways that still shape its borders. The danger today is subtler but no less serious: that the future of Western Sahara might once again be written in foreign ink, this time on UN letterhead.
Legally, Western Sahara’s status is unambiguous. It remains listed by the UN as a Non-Self-Governing Territory, one of the last awaiting decolonisation. International law recognises the Sahrawi people as possessing an inalienable right to self-determination and independence.
When Spain withdrew in 1975, it failed to organise the required act of self-determination. Instead, it divided the territory between Morocco and Mauritania. Mauritania later withdrew; Morocco did not. Its military occupation sparked a long war with the Sahrawi liberation movement, the Frente Polisario.
The 1991 UN-brokered ceasefire created MINURSO, the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. The mission’s very name is a reminder of the international commitment made: a referendum in which Sahrawis would choose between independence and integration with Morocco. That referendum has never taken place.
Today, around 200,000 Sahrawis remain in refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria, waiting in harsh conditions for the vote they were promised. In the occupied territory, Sahrawis face systematic repression and severe constraints on political expression. Yet they remain the only people with no seat at the table where their future is being debated.
The current situation cannot be understood without the US administration’s 2020 recognition of “Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara territory” in exchange for Morocco’s normalisation with Israel. This reversed decades of US adherence to UN-led self-determination and signalled that territorial questions could once again be traded as diplomatic currency.
Support for Morocco’s autonomy proposal is the political expression of that bargain. Marketed as a pragmatic compromise, it is predicated on accepting Moroccan sovereignty upfront, removing independence from consideration and redefining self-determination as ratification of annexation. A solution that excludes independence is not self-determination. It is the formalisation of conquest.
Those who insist that independence is “unrealistic” are elevating raw power above law. As scholars such as Stephen Zunes have warned, accepting autonomy as the final settlement would mark an unprecedented moment: the international community would be endorsing the expansion of a state’s territory by force after 1945. Every aspiring land-grabber on the planet would take note.
This argument that diplomacy must conform to power rather than principle dresses surrender up as pragmatism. “Realism” that ignores law and rights is not realism; it is complicity. The entire post-1945 legal order was built to end the idea that war and annexation are acceptable methods of drawing borders. Undermining that norm in Western Sahara does not make the world safer; it normalises the very behaviour many of these same states claim to oppose elsewhere.
A proposal is not a peace plan. A “solution” written by one side and handed to the other as the only acceptable outcome is not a negotiation — it is an ultimatum for surrender.
There is still time, and still a path, for the United States to reclaim a constructive role in resolving this conflict. For President Donald Trump in particular, the question of Western Sahara offers a rare opportunity to stand on the right side of history, to uphold the very Wilsonian principle of self-determination that the United States once championed, and to return American policy to its long-standing position of neutrality and respect for international law.
For decades, Republican and Democratic administrations alike supported a UN-led process and recognised Western Sahara as a decolonisation question, not as a bargaining chip. Restoring that principled approach would not only correct the 2020 departure from US tradition, but would reaffirm the American commitment to a world where borders cannot be changed by force and where the rights of small nations are protected from the ambitions of larger ones.
If President Trump were to bring the United States back to its historical role, supporting a fair, just and lasting solution rooted in genuine self-determination, he would achieve something that eluded every administration before him. He would be remembered not as a participant in a geopolitical trade, but as the president who helped resolve one of the world’s longest-running and most clear-cut decolonisation cases. He would be remembered as the leader who chose law over expediency, principle over pressure, David over Goliath.
There is a rare chance here: to correct a historic wrong, to end a conflict that has defeated presidents, prime ministers and UN Secretaries-General, and to bring justice to a small, peaceful and long-suffering people. Standing with the Sahrawi right to self-determination is not only the moral choice; it is the choice that aligns the United States with its own ideals and its own stated values and ultimately its interests.
Anything else, any endorsement of the logic of conquest or any attempt to force a people to accept subjugation as “autonomy”, would be a political act that history will not forget, and the Sahrawi people will not forgive.
Behind every debate in New York are people living under occupation, in refugee camps and in exile, waiting for a vote they were promised decades ago. The Sahrawi people are not seeking special treatment. They are asking for the same right that helped dismantle colonial rule from Asia to Africa: the right of a people to freely determine their political future.
What was right for Timor and Namibia is right for Western Sahara.
History offers many examples of colonial powers that looked immovable until, suddenly, they were not. East Timor, Namibia, Eritrea, all show that no amount of repression or diplomatic engineering can extinguish a people’s demand for freedom. In each case, global civil society, more than great powers, ultimately helped shift the balance.
The Sahrawi people are determined to reclaim their homeland. Determination alone, however, cannot overcome tanks, drones, a 2,700-kilometre sand berm, prisons and diplomatic horse-trading. Stronger international solidarity is urgently needed—not only in support of a just cause, but in defence of the international system itself. The Sahrawi struggle today stands at the frontline of protecting both the right to self-determination and the principles on which the United Nations was built.
To stand with Western Sahara is to defend the rule that borders cannot be changed by force and that colonialism cannot be rebranded as “autonomy”. States that champion a “rules-based international order” should match their rhetoric with action: refuse to recognise Moroccan sovereignty; support a free and fair act of self-determination that includes independence; and ensure that UN resolutions are implemented rather than endlessly recycled.
Civil society and solidarity networks also have important roles to play, from advocacy to material support for Sahrawi institutions and refugee communities.
The UN Security Council is not mandated to rubber-stamp an illegal occupation and baptise it as decolonisation. Doing so would violate the UN Charter, particularly Article 24. Under the Charter and decolonisation law, the Council’s room for manoeuvre is constrained by the peremptory right of self-determination. It cannot lawfully override that foundational right. Article 24(2) requires the Council to act in accordance with the purposes of the Charter—including self-determination—and its decisions cannot derogate from jus cogens norms.
Decolonisation remains the only lawful path to ending this conflict. The core question is simple: does the international community still believe that peoples, especially colonised peoples, have the right to choose their own future? If the answer is yes, then sovereignty in Western Sahara remains, in law and in principle, with the Sahrawi people.
The map of Africa was once drawn in imperial ink. Whether Western Sahara remains the last stain of that era or becomes part of a different future depends on whether the world insists that decolonisation means what it says.
FRIDAY’S RESULTS
CITY SECTION
Quarterfinals
OPEN DIVISION
#1 Carson 27, #8 King/Drew 2
#5 Garfield 42, #4 Palisades 21
#6 Crenshaw 30, #3 San Pedro 0
#2 Birmingham 49, #7 Granada Hills Kennedy 20
DIVISION I
#1 Venice 35, #8 Franklin 8
#5 Marquez 47, #13 Van Nuys 7
#11 Dorsey at #3 Eagle Rock, postponed until Monday
#2 South Gate 32, #7 Gardena 24 (OT)
DIVISION II
#1 Cleveland 42, #9 North Hollywood 0
#4 Fairfax 27, #5 L.A. University 18
#6 L.A. Marshall 17, #14 Chatsworth 12
#2 San Fernando 18, #10 Arleta 14
DIVISION III
#5 Contreras 20, #4 Jefferson 14
#3 LA Wilson 33, #11 Chavez 20
#2 Hawkins 18, #7 Roybal 15
8-MAN
Semifinals
#4 East Valley at #1 Sherman Oaks CES, postponed
#2 Anino Robinson 16, #3 TEACH Tech 6
SOUTHERN SECTION
Quarterfinals
DIVISION I
Orange Lutheran 20, St. John Bosco 19
Santa Margarita 21, Sierra Canyon 9
Mater Dei 20, Mission Viejo 0
Corona Centennial 41, Servite 6
DIVISION 2
Murrieta Valley 26, Rancho Cucamonga 6
Los Alamitos 35, San Juan Hills 10
San Clemente 32, Vista Murrieta 7
Leuzinger 19, Chaparral 16
DIVISION 3
Oxnard Pacifica 28, Bishop Amat 7
Chino Hills 54, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 26
Palos Verdes 14, Dana Hills 13
Edison 9, Inglewood 7
DIVISION 4
Charter Oak 21, San Jacinto 14
Villa Park 30, Great Oak 6
Oaks Christian 28, Paraclete 14
La Habra 13, Cathedral 7
DIVISION 5
Redondo Union 14, St. Paul 13
Loyola 21, Bonita 14
La Serna 10, Aliso Niguel 7
Rio Hondo Prep 28, Troy 0
DIVISION 6
Eastvale Roosevelt 14, Burbank 13
St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy 31, Upland 28
Agoura 27, Orange Vista 26
Ventura 35, Moorpark 28
DIVISION 7
Palm Springs 22, Hart 21
Barstow 34, La Canada 6
Apple Valley 28, Victor Valley 20
Saugus 28, Calabasas 27
DIVISION 8
Palm Desert 46, Patriot 33
Beckman 30, Fullerton 13
Irvine 14, Quartz Hill 0
Brea Olinda 41, St. Monica 28
DIVISION 9
Ramona 48, Cerritos 22
Hesperia 21, Norte Vista 7
Cerritos Valley Christian 10, Warren 7
San Dimas 28, Riverside Poly 8
DIVISION 10
Tahquitz 38, Oak Park 33
Santa Monica 14, Brentwood 13
Garden Grove Pacifica 13, Liberty 7
Hillcrest 27, St. Margaret’s 13
DIVISION 11
Western Christian 21, El Monte 14
Baldwin Park 48, Shadow Hills 10
Valley View 28, Gahr 21
South Pasadena 41, Palmdale 7
DIVISION 12
Grace 41, Yucca Valley 28
Coachella Valley 49, Perris 14
Bellflower 13, Colton 12
Santa Paula 21, Arroyo Valley 14
DIVISION 13
Saddleback 28, Santa Rosa Academy 11
Woodbridge 23, Buena Park 16
La Puente 50, Viewpoint 28
Montebello 27, Linfield Christian 25
DIVISION 14
South El Monte 14, Indian Springs 7
Miller 25, Ontario 20
Anaheim 13, Alhambra 6
Pioneer 14, Trinity Classical Academy 6
8-MAN
Quarterfinals
DIVISION 1
Sage Hill 58, Chadwick 49
Faith Baptist 50, California School for the Deaf Riverside 6
DIVISION 2
Hesperia Christian 40, Lancaster Desert Christian 0
FRIDAY’S RESULTS
CITY SECTION
First Round
DIVISION I
#1 Venice 38, #16 Bell 0
#8 Franklin 35, #9 Westchester 15
#5 Marquez 17, #12 Granada Hills 12
#13 Van Nuys 36, #4 Wilmington Banning 15
#3 Eagle Rock 62, #14 Taft 37
#11 Dorsey 26, #6 El Camino Real 8
#7 Gardena 30, #10 L.A. Hamilton 26
#2 South Gate 47, #15 Lincoln 21
DIVISION II
#1 Cleveland 24, #16 Legacy 3
#9 North Hollywood 42, #8 Sylmar 35
#5 L.A. University 16, #12 Washington 12
#4 Fairfax 55, #13 Panorama 22
#14 Chatsworth 40, #3 L.A. Roosevelt 12
#10 Arleta 35, #7 Huntington Park 32
#2 San Fernando 33, #15 South East 14
DIVISION III
#1 Santee 40, #16 Locke 8
#8 Maywood CES 34, #9 Fremont 16
#5 Contreras 35, #12 Sun Valley Poly 28
#4 Jefferson 57, #13 Canoga Park 7
#3 L.A. Wilson 42, #14 Rancho Dominguez 14
#11 Chavez 36, #6 Manual Arts 14
#7 Roybal 34, #10 Verdugo Hills 14
#2 Hawkins 34, #15 Los Angeles 0
SOUTHERN SECTION
First Round
DIVISION 2
Murrieta Valley 35, Corona del Mar 14
Rancho Cucamonga 45, Tustin 8
Los Alamitos 35, Yorba Linda 28
San Juan Hills 28, Downey 27
San Clemente 38, Beaumont 21
Vista Murrieta 36, Damien 31
Leuzinger 34, Crean Lutheran 17
Chaparral 63, Chaminade 42
DIVISION 3
Bishop Amat 28, Murrieta Mesa 9
Oxnard Pacifica 42, Oak Hills 21
Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 44, Laguna Beach 28
Chino Hills 42, Mira Costa 35
Dana Hills 27, Aquinas 26
Palos Verdes 42, Valencia 34
Edison 31, Huntington Beach 19
Inglewood 40, Capistrano Valley 16
DIVISION 4
Charter Oak 17, Muir 14
San Jacinto 30, Bishop Diego 29
Great Oak 38, Cajon 15
Villa Park 28, Westlake 24
Oaks Christian 16, St. Bonaventure 13
Paraclete 54, Long Beach Wilson 48
Cathedral 40, Western 21
La Habra 41, El Modena 7
DIVISION 5
Redondo Union 21, Torrance 14
St. Paul 38, Etiwanda 19
Bonita 31, Northview 19
Loyola 17, Newbury Park 14
Aliso Niguel 7, Millikan 6
La Serna 7, Lakewood 0
Rio Hondo Prep 50, Thousand Oaks 34
Troy 49, Orange 27
DIVISION 6
Eastvale Roosevelt 33, Crespi 24
Burbank 52, Lancaster 43
St. Pius X-St. Matthias Academy 35, Alta Loma 6
Upland 42, Los Altos 21
Orange Vista 50, El Toro 31
Agoura 35, Summit 7
Ventura 42, Salesian 31
Moorpark 31, Riverside King 28
DIVISION 7
Palm Springs 33, Claremont 7
Hart 52, Mayfair 24
Barstow 34, Serrano 12
La Canada 30, West Covina 14
Apple Valley 21, North Torrance 20
Victor Valley 34, Segerstrom 14
Saugus 22, Schurr 19
Calabasas 31, El Segundo 24
DIVISION 8
Palm Desert 31, Marina 7
Patriot 48, Elsinore 28
Beckman 41, La Mirada 21
Fullerton 38, La Quinta 21
Irvine 24, Temecula Valley 7
Quartz Hill 41, Santa Ana Calvary Chapel 0
Brea Olinda 21, Mary Star of the Sea 12
St. Monica 28, St. Genevieve 18
DIVISION 9
Ramona 21, Silverado 14
Cerritos 16, Fillmore 7
Hesperia 27, Moreno Valley 21
Norte Vista 28, Vista del Lago 24
Warren 17, Norwalk 7
Cerritos Valley Christian 29, Chino 6
San Dimas 24, Rowland 22
Riverside Poly 34, Corona Santiago 24
DIVISION 10
Oak Park 17, Village Christian 15
Tahquitz 39, Heritage Christian 12
Brentwood 13, Portola 3
Santa Monica 42, Pasadena 16
Garden Grove Pacifica 35, El Rancho 14
Liberty 42, West Torrance 35
St. Margaret’s 16, Redlands East Valley 15
Hillcrest 41, Monrovia 14
DIVISION 11
El Monte 18, St. Anthony 13
Western Christian 27, Bell Gardens 20
Baldwin Park 42, Maranatha 28
Shadow Hills 37, Jurupa Hills 0
Gahr 21, Chaffey 16
Valley View 24, Dominguez 3
Palmdale 39, Diamond Bar 20
South Pasadena 42, San Marcos 17
DIVISION 12
Yucca Valley 43, Costa Mesa 17
Grace 28, Rialto 27
Perris 51, Citrus Hill 22
Coachella Valley 38, Banning 35
Bellflower 14, Nogales 7
Colton 73, Ganesha 53
Santa Paula 27, Ocean View 7
Arroyo Valley 26, Desert Christian Academy 24
DIVISION 13
Saddleback 21, Pacific 17
Santa Rosa Academy 35, Heritage 21
Woodbridge 28, Desert Hot Springs 13
Buena 42, Nordhoff 40
La Puente 26, Kaiser 19
Linfield Christian 47, Hacienda Heights Wilson 20
Montebello 19, Rancho Alamitos 17
DIVISION 14
South El Monte 46, Channel Islands 7
Indian Springs 27, Vasquez 20
Ontario 21, Bolsa Grande 0
Miller 39, San Jacinto Valley 13
Alhambra 25, Bassett 0
Trinity Classical Academy 47, Gabrielino 35
Pioneer 42, Godinez 21
8-MAN
CITY SECTION
Quarterfinals
#1 Sherman Oaks CES 66, #8 USC Hybrid 0
#4 East Valley 28, #5 Valley Oaks CES 22
#2 Animo Robinson 66, #7 New Designs University Park 21
SOUTHERN SECTION
First Round
DIVISION 1
Avalon 45, Thacher 14
DIVISION 2
Cal Lutheran 52, Maricopa 22
Desert Christian 34, Malibu 7
Hesperia Christian 26, Academy of Career and Exploration 13
Lancaster Baptist 57, Downey Calvary Chapel 14
Thousands of Moroccans filled the streets of Rabat singing and waving flags after the UN Security Council adopted a resolution describing autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty as the most feasible solution to the decades-long territorial dispute. The US-drafted text provides international endorsement of Morocco in its dispute with the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.
Published On 2 Nov 20252 Nov 2025
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