5 days ago
John Bolton's plan to reverse Trump's Western Sahara decision with business incentives
John Bolton is proposing a strategy to Algeria and the Polisario aimed at persuading former U.S. President Donald Trump to reverse his recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, a decision officially made on December 10, 2020. According to Bolton, securing Trump's support for organizing a referendum on the territory would require giving him a «motivation», as he recently explained in an interview with a Spanish media outlet.
Referring to Trump's once-ambitious—and since abandoned—plan to turn Gaza into the «French Riviera of the Middle East», Bolton suggested to the Polisario and Algerian authorities that «Western Sahara has a vast Atlantic coastline. I can envision hotel complexes and casinos».
He went on to say, «If Trump is convinced that his Trump Corporation could win a concession in the region to develop hotel resorts, it might catch his interest and lead him to support a referendum».
For context, back in 2002, Bachir Mustapha Sayed proposed offering the United States a military base in the Sahara in exchange for recognition of the so-called «SADR», once the conflict had been resolved in the Polisario's favor. The move resulted in his prolonged marginalization.
Today, the idea of incentivizing Trump to shift his position on the Sahara appears to be gaining traction in Algeria. Prime Minister Nadir Larbaoui's government recently introduced a bill in Parliament allowing foreign investors to hold up to 80% of the capital in untapped hydrocarbon and mining projects, thereby reducing the share of state-owned enterprises to just 20%. Meanwhile, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune hosted delegations from American oil giants Chevron and ExxonMobil on June 23 and 24.
