HIBAPRESS – Abdellatif Baraka
At a time when the wave of discontent is increasing inside the Tindouf camps against the leadership of the Polisario Front, its leader, Brahim Ghali, known as "Ben Battouch", seeks to appear in the image of a politician open to solutions, confirming the Front's readiness to enter into negotiations without preconditions with Morocco under the auspices of the United Nations. However, this diplomatic maneuver comes in a charged internal context, revealing a stark contradiction between the Front's discourse and its practices within the camps.
In an official statement, the Front said that Ghali met with UN Secretary-General António Guterres on the sidelines of the seventh summit of the African Union-European Union in Luanda, stressing that the meeting focused on the need to accelerate the resolution of the file according to what it considers "fortifying the right to self-determination." But the UN's position remained constant, as Guterres stressed the need to continue the political path led by his personal envoy Staffan de Mistura, with the hope of launching "serious negotiations without preconditions"; This is the same UN position that has not changed for years.
While the Front is trying to market Ghali's meeting with the Secretary-General as a "diplomatic victory", developments inside the camps have come to reveal a completely different reality. Sources from within Tindouf reported that militias belonging to Ghali prevented a meeting that was scheduled to include notables and youth from the camps, after they expressed a positive interaction with the royal initiative for autonomy, considering it a realistic entry point to end their suffering that has continued for decades. The meeting place was cordoned off and completely besieged, which caused an unprecedented state of tension inside the camps, and opened the door to a silent confrontation between the Front's bases and its leadership.
This incident, which flashes a red light inside Tindouf, reflects a growing state of fear among the Front's leadership of any internal movement that affects its cohesion or shows the existence of a popular willingness to discuss realistic solutions outside the separatist discourse. This puts the so-called "openness to negotiations" in the category of political consumption, not in the category of a real shift in the position of the Polisario leadership.
In parallel with this tension, the recent Security Council resolutions continue to consolidate the reference of the autonomy initiative as the realistic and practical solution to the conflict, and confirm Morocco's pivotal role in the stability of the region, which greatly reduces the Front's margin of maneuver and makes its attempts to revive its international presence closer to a belated polishing campaign.
In light of this contradiction between discourse and practice, it appears that the Front is experiencing external isolation and increasing internal pressure, while the circle of those who reject the approach of "Ben Battouch" is expanding inside the camps, which makes the coming days pregnant with developments that may change the balance of power within the organization itself.
