Pro-Polisario US senator Jim Inhofe romanticizing separatists’ claims

US senator Jim Inhofe, one of the very few conservative US figures to express reservations on Morocco’s Western Sahara claims, spoke yesterday, Tuesday, on the Senate floor about the Sahara issue.

The Republican senator who visited Tindouf camps about a year ago and expressed support in the presence of the former UN envoy, Christopher Ross, adopted a pro-Polisario approach, accusing the Kingdom of Morocco of threatening the Sahrawis.

Although the Polisario chose the policy of escalation at the Guerguerat border crossing, the American politician accused Morocco of choosing this timing “probably intentionally, to threaten to intervene to stop the Sahrawi protests” he said.

Despite the UN Secretary-General’s several demands to allow people and goods to pass through the crossing, Inhofe insisted that the border crossing violated the UN-sponsored ceasefire agreement. He claimed that Morocco had threatened to use arms and “crush these legitimate protests.” He also criticized the United Nations and said, “It has tolerated Morocco’s violations for years,” and called for “forcing Morocco to abide by the agreement concluded for nearly 30 years and to hold the referendum.”