Tehran-Polisario: A Hidden Menace

From Tehran to Tindouf: The Hidden Alliance Threatening North Africa

In a development that lays bare the deepening ties between the Polisario Front and the Iranian regime, a young separatist figure revealed this week that he had met with the Iranian ambassador in Spain. During the meeting, the Polisario representative expressed full solidarity with Iran in its confrontation with Israel, emphasizing what he described as “shared struggles against hegemonic powers.” In return, the Iranian ambassador reaffirmed his country’s support for the Polisario Front and encouraged the group’s calls for secession from Moroccan sovereignty.

This publicly disclosed meeting serves as yet another indication that the relationship between the Polisario and Tehran is no longer speculation—it is an evolving reality that threatens to transform the conflict in the Moroccan Sahara into a new front in global geopolitical tensions.

Amid rising instability across North Africa and the Sahel, new evidence continues to emerge revealing a shadowy and dangerous alliance between the separatist Polisario Front and the Iranian regime. This unholy alliance appears to be an undeclared effort to export chaos, erode regional stability, and weaken Morocco’s sovereignty.

For years, Iran has faced accusations of supporting the Polisario not just politically or diplomatically, but also militarily and logistically through Lebanese Hezbollah. Although Tehran has repeatedly denied these allegations, numerous intelligence and media reports have shed light on the training of Polisario militants in guerrilla warfare and explosives—raising deep security concerns across the region.

In 2018, Morocco severed diplomatic relations with Iran, citing concrete evidence that the Iranian embassy in Algeria was facilitating the delivery of weapons and the training of Polisario fighters via Hezbollah operatives. This also implicates the Algerian regime in a wider regional strategy of destabilization. Iran’s ultimate goal appears to be exporting regional tension deeper into Africa and securing influence along the Atlantic coast.

In the Tindouf camps—located on Algerian soil—eyewitness accounts speak of increasing foreign intelligence activity, infiltration by suspicious actors within the Polisario’s ranks, and the recruitment of youth into networks that go well beyond the dream of “self-determination,” instead posing a direct threat to Moroccan national security and regional stability.

While certain international actors continue to look the other way, the international community must now adopt a firm and responsible stance against any support for terrorism disguised as a struggle for liberation. What was once a local political conflict has morphed into a proxy tool in Iran’s broader influence game.

Exposing these realities is no longer a luxury—it is a security imperative. There is an urgent need to halt the flow of weapons and training into the Tindouf region, to protect local populations and prevent the entire region from becoming a battleground for foreign agendas.

The rapid developments and mounting evidence of the Polisario Front’s involvement in cross-border terrorist activities make it imperative for the international community to reconsider its stance. The Polisario is no longer just a separatist movement—it has become a real threat to peace and security across the Sahel and the Maghreb, with proven links to arms trafficking, human smuggling, and alliances with globally sanctioned terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The Tindouf camps have now become breeding grounds for extremism, militant recruitment, and political blackmail, all in the absence of effective international oversight and under the complicit or permissive eye of the Algerian regime—driven by its regional rivalry with Morocco.

It is therefore the moral and legal responsibility of the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union, and all nations committed to fighting terrorism, to act without delay and officially designate the Polisario Front as a terrorist organization—just as other groups have been labeled for engaging in similar violent and separatist tactics.

Such a designation will not merely be symbolic. It would represent a decisive step toward disrupting extremist networks, holding sponsors accountable, and preventing North Africa from descending further into proxy wars orchestrated by external actors like Iran.