section_path: Government and politics/Western Sahara status
section_name: Western Sahara status
paragraph_text: Western Sahara status
  
  The status of the Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro regions is disputed. The Western Sahara War saw the Polisario Front, the Sahrawi rebel national liberation movement, battling both Morocco and Mauritania between 1976 and a ceasefire in 1991. The Moroccan government has stated that their claimed area of Western Sahara is referred to as the "Southern Provinces". A United Nations mission, MINURSO, is tasked with organising a referendum on whether the territory should become independent or recognised as a part of Morocco.
  
  Part of the territory, the Free Zone, is a mostly uninhabited area that the Polisario Front controls as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Its administrative headquarters are located in Tindouf, Algeria. As of 2006, no UN member state had recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. In 2006, the government of Morocco suggested autonomous status for the region through the Moroccan Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS). The project was presented to the United Nations Security Council in mid-April 2007. The proposal was encouraged by Moroccan allies such as the United States, France, and Spain. The Security Council has called upon the parties to enter into direct and unconditional negotiations to reach a mutually accepted political solution.
  
  In 2020, the United States under the Trump administration became the first Western country to back Morocco's contested sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region, on the agreement that Morocco would simultaneously normalise relations with Israel. The Polisario later declared an end to the ceasefire; this led to occasional clashes between the two.