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. , no UN member state had recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.  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 normalize relations with Israel.