The bunker that once housed Ayatollah Khamenei is rubble. Iran’s ballistic missile array — the crown jewel of the mullahs — lies shattered after Israel’s precision strikes. In Tehran, the regime that vowed to export its revolution across the region is now begging for survival. And thousands of miles west, in the blistering dunes of the Western Sahara, another remnant of that same Iranian axis is gasping its final breath.
The objective was to bleed a pro-Western monarchy, sabotage the Abraham Accords, and turn North Africa into a permanent forward base for jihad.
The Polisario Front is a separatist militia founded in 1973 as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Río de Oro. Backed from day one by Algeria, it has waged a low-level war against Morocco, claiming to represent the Sahrawi people while in reality serving as a proxy to keep the region unstable. For decades Algiers funneled cash, weapons, and diplomatic oxygen to the group; Iranian Revolutionary Guards trained its fighters and coordinated logistics through the same global terror pipeline that armed Hezbollah and Hamas. The objective was never “self-determination” — it was to bleed a pro-Western monarchy, sabotage the Abraham Accords, and turn North Africa into a permanent forward base for jihad.
That strategy died the moment Israel turned Khamenei’s bunker into dust.
The Polisario’s collapse is now accelerating in real time. Its traditional patrons are vanishing. Cuba and Venezuela are economic basket cases. South Africa’s ANC is too busy with domestic scandals to keep writing checks. Even the United Nations — once a reliable rubber stamp for Algiers — has watched multiple resolutions quietly tilt toward Morocco’s autonomy plan. The February 2026 Madrid talks, convened under direct American pressure, forced Algeria, Polisario, and Morocco into the same room. The message was blunt: the colonial-era border fantasy is finished.
Algiers is in full panic mode. A nation floating on oil and gas now suffers 26% youth unemployment and a currency in freefall. It brags about Africa’s largest air force while its people stand in bread lines. Billions poured into defense are not about external threats — they are regime insurance. Without Tehran’s money and ideological glue, the Maghreb leg of the “axis of resistance” has been reduced to one paranoid dictatorship shouting into the void.
Meanwhile, Morocco offers the living proof that realism works.
Since signing the Abraham Accords, Morocco has turned Western Sahara from a minefield into a development zone. New cities, ports, and solar mega-projects are rising under Moroccan sovereignty. The autonomy plan — praised by multiple U.S. administrations — gives Polisario fighters a way out: disarm, integrate, and build. Thousands of Sahrawis already voted with their feet years ago. Only Algiers and its rented separatists cling to the old script.
President Trump has repeatedly reaffirmed full U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the entire territory.
Now America is closing the net.
President Trump has repeatedly reaffirmed full U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the entire territory. His “unconditional surrender” doctrine toward Iran applies here too: no more endless negotiations, no more American tax dollars propping up terror sponsors.
The policy road map is obvious — and urgent.
First, Washington must codify Moroccan sovereignty without another day of delay. This is not a gift; it is strategic justice. Morocco is a proven Abraham Accords partner that normalized ties with Israel, dismantled jihadist financing networks, and stood with the West against Iran.
Second, squeeze Algiers. End the diplomatic charade. Link any energy deals, IMF loans, or arms sales to concrete deliverables: cut off Polisario funding, expel lingering Iranian operatives, and normalize the border with Morocco. Autocratic chaos in Algiers is not “stability” — it is the same time bomb that has already exported jihad into the Sahel and threatened Europe’s energy lifeline.
Third — and this is where the Polisario’s fate is sealed — Congress must pass the Polisario Front Terrorist Designation Act (H.R. 4119). Introduced in 2025 with bipartisan support, the bill is gaining unstoppable momentum precisely because of the evidence that has always been there: documented attacks on civilians (including the 2023 Smara rocket strikes), thousands of landmines still maiming innocents, hostage-taking, and direct ties to the IRGC and Hezbollah via Algerian pipelines. The ceasefire violations, the Iranian training camps, the use of Sahrawi refugees as human shields in Tindouf — all of it qualifies the group for Foreign Terrorist Organization status under U.S. law.
The fall of Khamenei snapped the entire supply chain that kept artificial conflicts alive from the Gulf to the Atlantic.
Designating the Polisario as an FTO is no longer theoretical. With Khamenei gone and Iran’s terror infrastructure crippled, the last excuse has evaporated. The bill would freeze assets, ban material support, and finally treat these fighters the same way America treats Hamas and Hezbollah. It is the logical next step in the same war Israel is winning in the skies over Tehran.
The fall of Khamenei did not merely change the Middle East. It snapped the entire supply chain that kept artificial conflicts alive from the Gulf to the Atlantic. Polisario leaders sense the end. Their Tindouf camps are restless. Their propaganda has turned shrill. Their sponsors are broke — financially, militarily, and ideologically.
Published originally on March 7, 2026.
