Moroccan officials have rejected claims that their country will have to recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) now that the kingdom is permitted to rejoin the African Union (AU). Moroccan Deputy Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said in an interview published on Sunday that Morocco’s membership in the AU would not mean a recognition of the SADR borders declared by the the Polisario Front in the Western Sahara region at the height of a war for the territory.

“Not only does Morocco not recognize – and will never recognize – this so-called entity … It will (also) redouble its efforts so the small minority of countries, particularly African, which recognize it, change their positions,” said Bourita.

The Moroccan diplomat said Rabat will not change its stance on the territory, refuting statements by Polisario and its allies that Morocco’s return to the African bloc implies a recognition of the SADR’s borders.

“This is nonsense from the point of view of international law and state practice,” Bourita said, adding that joining “an international forum in the presence of an unrecognized entity cannot imply the state’s recognition of that entity.” The AU decided in a meeting in Ethiopia last Monday to approve Morocco’s re-entry into the bloc. The kingdom left the AU in 1984 after the continental body admitted SADR.

Polisario backers, namely Algeria and South Africa, had resisted Morocco’s return. A diplomatic source in Rabat said Morocco’s re-entry into AU was a major setback for those countries, saying they “spent months doing everything they can to prevent our return, until the last minute.”

The source said Polisario backers are now trying to present their “failure as a success” by pretending that Morocco has accepted to recognize SADR. “Morocco will continue to mobilize to delegitimize the SADR,” said the senior diplomat, adding, “The return of Morocco is a direct challenge to the presence of the Polisario within the AU.”

The Polisario head and SADR president, Brahim Ghali, said Sunday that the movement was ready to hold talks with Morocco, but warned that “all options are open” in the independence struggle from the kingdom, meaning that the movement could return to armed struggle against Rabat.

“We always look for the peaceful way” to resolve the conflict, Ghali said, adding, “But all options remain open.” Ghali called on Morocco to meet its commitments, saying the kingdom should respect the international borders of the Sahrawi Republic now that it is a member of the AU

The disputed Sahara territory was for long a Spanish colony until it went under Moroccan control in 1975. Years of war ended with a ceasefire in 1991 but the two sides of the conflict have rejected efforts to reach a permanent solution. Some 165,000 people, known as Sahrawis, currently live in a refugee camp in Tindouf, southwestern Algeria. The population mostly lives on aid from UN agencies and international NGOs.

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African leaders have renewed their determination to pull out of the International Criminal Court (ICC) collectively, accusing the international body of discriminating against Africans. The African leaders adopted a strategy for their collective withdrawal at the 28th African Union (AU) summit, which wrapped up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Tuesday.

A draft of the strategy, which was recited at a closed-door AU session and was later published by AP, recommends that African states build up and strengthen their own independent judicial systems. The non-binding recommendation also calls on African nations to expand the jurisdiction of the African court of justice and human rights to resolve disputes on the continent “in order to reduce the deference to the ICC.”

This is the latest expression of impatience by African leaders with the court, which some say has focused too narrowly on African leaders. Desire Assogbavi, the head of Oxfam International’s AU liaison office, confirmed the adoption of the strategy. However, analysts say African countries are divided on whether to leave the court or try to change some of its policies.

Burundi, Gambia, and South Africa have already said they no longer recognize the court’s jurisdiction and announced their intention to quit. But several other African countries, including Nigeria, Senegal and the Republic of the Congo have spoken up in support of the ICC in recent months. One of the main African supporters of the ICC is former United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan. Since the ICC was launched on July 1,  2002, it has indicted 39 people, all of whom have been African.

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The African Union has readmitted Morocco into the bloc 33 years after its withdrawal over the still existing Western Sahara dispute. The majority of the AU member states voted for the re-admission of during the 28th summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Monday, leaving the issue of the disputed territory of Western Sahara for another day.

“Morocco is now a full member of the African Union. There was a very long debate but 39 of our 54 states approved the return of Morocco, even if the Western Sahara question remains,” Senegalese President Macky Sall told reporters. “As we have said, if the family grows bigger, we can find solutions as a family,” Macky Sall added.

Algeria and South Africa were among the heavyweights that opposed the re-admission of Morocco. The country withdrew from the AU in 1984, when the mineral-rich and sparsely populated Saharan Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), commonly known as Western Sahara, was accepted as a member. Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, in 1975. It maintains that Western Sahara is an integral part of the kingdom, but the international community has not recognized the annexation.

Western Sahara is home to the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, a Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement aiming to end Moroccan presence in the territory. In 1991, Moroccan forces and Sahrawi rebels agreed on a UN-brokered truce and a referendum to settle the status of Western Sahara. However, the vote has never taken place. Some had feared Morocco would set the expulsion of the SADR  as a precondition for its own return to the AU.

“From the moment that Morocco did not impose conditions … we take their word for it and accept that Morocco be admitted to the African Union,” said SADR Foreign Minister Mohamed Salem Ould Salek. Salek said the re-admission of Morocco will help pressure the authorities into holding a referendum to “allow the Sahrawi to choose their future”.

“Now (if) Morocco is blocking (it) will be questioned by the head of states: why are you afraid of a referendum? Why don’t you allow the Sahrawi to choose their future freely?” he said. Morocco has for several years been trying to return to the body as it reportedly seeks to expand its economy. In July 2016, Moroccan King Mohammed VI officially announced plans to rejoin the African Union.

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