Western Sahara

In June 2025 the UK Government changed its policy position towards Western Sahara.

Previously, successive governments regarded the status of Western Sahara as “undetermined”.

During a visit to Morocco, David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, said the UK “has chosen to endorse autonomy within the Moroccan state as the most credible, viable, and pragmatic basis for a mutually-agreed and lasting solution to the Western Sahara dispute”. Hamish Falconer, the Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, has subsequently said that the UK continues to regard the status of Western Sahara as “undetermined”.

Morocco first proposed autonomy for the Sahara region under Moroccan sovereignty in 2007. In recent years France, Spain and several other countries have since endorsed Morocco’s proposal, while in 2020 the then Trump Administration recognised Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara.

This briefing sets out the history of Western Sahara, recent developments and the UK Government’s position.

About Western Sahara

Western Sahara, in West Africa, is classed by the UN Special Committee on Decolonization as a non-self-governing territory. These are territories “whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government”. The territory has been under the de facto control of Morocco since Spain withdrew from its former colony in the mid-1970s.

The Polisario Front leads a nationalist effort calling for the people of Western Sahara to determine their future. The Front declared the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) in 1976, with a government in exile in Algeria. Algeria continues to support the group. The Polisario Front fought an armed campaign against Morocco until an UN-negotiated ceasefire came into effect in 1991. This ceasefire held until 2020.

The berm, an earthen barrier constructed by Morocco, separates the Moroccan-administered western portion along the Atlantic coast from the eastern part controlled by the Polisario.

Western Sahara has significant mineral resources mined by Morocco. The International Crisis Group says Morocco has “poured considerable resources into the territory” since the 1970s.

Numerous talks facilitated by the United Nations have yet to resolve territory’s future. Plans for a referendum, first proposed in the 1960s, to determine the future of the territory never materialised. The Polisario Front continues to press for a referendum on the territory’s future; Morocco states it holds sovereignty over Western Sahara, which it refers to as the ‘Southern Provinces’. Morocco has proposed a degree of autonomy for the area.

UK position

In June 2025 the UK Government announced it is “adopt[ing] a new UK policy position towards Western Sahara”. The UK Government said it now “considers Morocco’s autonomy proposal, submitted in 2007, as the "most credible, viable and pragmatic basis for a lasting resolution of the dispute”. In a joint communique signed with Morocco, the UK also said that the “only viable and durable solution will be one that is mutually acceptable to the relevant parties, and is arrived at through compromise”.

On 11 June 2025, in response to a written parliamentary question by Navendu Mishra (Lab), Hamish Falconer, the Minister for the Middle East and North Africa, said that the UK continues to regard the status of Western Sahara as “undetermined”.

Recent developments

Since 2020 there have been several significant developments:

• In November 2020, the Polisario Front declared an end to the ceasefire with Morocco that had held since 1991. The UN has recorded “low level hostilities” since then.
• In December 2020, the Trump Administration recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. The Biden Administration has not changed this policy.
• In March 2022, Spain endorsed Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara as “the most serious, realistic and credible” basis for solving the dispute.
• In October 2023, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling on all parties to resume negotiations to achieving a “just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution” which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara. The UK supported the 2023 resolution.
• In October 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron endorsed Moroccan sovereignty of Western Sahara. During a speech in Morocco’s Parliament, he said “for France, this territory's present and future fall under Morocco's sovereignty”.
• In April 2025, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reaffirmed the Trump administration’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara and its autonomy proposal as the “only basis for a just and lasting solution to the dispute”.