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Trump administration sides with Morocco in Western Sahara dispute

The Donald Trump administration pushed a UN resolution that is tough on the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.
A member of the United Nations peace mission MINURSO gestures during a visit of the UN chief at a UN base in Bir-Lahlou, in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, situated 220 kilometres (137 miles) southwest of the Algerian town of Tindouf, on March 5, 2016. / AFP / Farouk Batiche        (Photo credit should read FAROUK BATICHE/AFP/Getty Images)
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The Donald Trump administration is siding squarely with Morocco regarding its occupation of the Western Sahara, suggesting that the unorthodox president is ready to shake up longstanding US policy toward the decades-old North African conflict.

The UN Security Council on Friday adopted a US-sponsored resolution that is unusually critical of the pro-independence Polisario Front after tabling an earlier US draft that was even more favorable to Morocco. The resolution renews the UN peacekeeping mission to the Western Sahara, MINURSO, for six months while calling out the Algeria-backed Polisario for recent tensions in the region.

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