Former U.S. National Security Adviser Rebuts Moroccan Propaganda Aimed at Smearing the Sahrawi People’s Struggle, Says: “I Have Seen No Evidence Linking the Polisario to Terrorism”

 

Former U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton has rejected claims aimed at discrediting the Sahrawi people’s struggle and linking the Polisario Front to terrorism, stressing that he dealt with the Front for approximately 35 years and never saw any indications proving its involvement in terrorism or links to extremist Islamist groups or Iran.

In an interview with Spain’s Radio Exterior, Bolton explicitly rejected calls from some U.S. political circles to designate the Polisario Front as a terrorist organization, arguing that such efforts are not supported by what he personally witnessed during his decades of engagement with the movement and the Western Sahara issue.

The former U.S. diplomat stressed that attempts to associate the Polisario Front with terrorism neither change the nature of the Sahrawi issue nor alter what he considers to be the movement’s history as a force that has fought for self-determination and independence. He also denied seeing any indications that the Front had adopted extremist ideologies or established links with armed Islamist movements.

Bolton’s remarks come at a time when political and media efforts by the Zionist-Moroccan lobby in the United States to link the Polisario Front to Iran and armed groups in the region are intensifying. These allegations, according to the report, are being used by the Moroccan occupation regime to discredit the Sahrawi people’s struggle and their just cause, which is classified by the United Nations within the framework of decolonization.

Bolton argues that shifting the debate away from the core of the issue—namely, the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination—toward allegations of terrorism does not provide a solution to the conflict. Instead, he calls for a return to the UN-led process and the organization of a free referendum allowing Sahrawis to choose their future.

This position further underscores that attempts to label the Sahrawi struggle as terrorism face opposition from a senior American figure who was closely involved with the issue for decades and participated in UN mediation efforts related to the settlement plan developed by James Baker.