Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: Global Dispatches -- World News That Matters
Episode: The Western Sahara Conflict Takes an Unexpected Turn
Description: On December 10th, Donald Trump upended over 30 years of US diplomacy with a tweet in which he declared American support for Morocco's claims of sovereignty over Western Sahara. Since the 1970s, Morocco and a local group called the Polisario Front have fought for control of Western Sahara. In the early 1990s the United States brokered a ceasefire agreement which called for the people of Western Sahara to vote in a referendum to determine their status as an independent country. A UN Peacekeeping mission was deployed to region to help maintain the ceasefire and prepare for the vote.Â