El Dorado in the Sahara: Western Sahara Booms As Tensions Grow
NEED TO KNOW
El Dorado in the Sahara: Western Sahara Booms As Tensions Grow
WESTERN SAHARA
The road from the northern border of Western Sahara to the southern city of Dakhla feels like a road to nowhere: It’s hundreds of miles of sand and sea, with a very occasional truck, sleepy town or military checkpoint interrupting the emptiness.
And just a few years ago, Dakhla, a small city on the Atlantic of about 100,000 people, was a quiet outpost, with little infrastructure and few jobs. These days, however, it’s become a boomtown, a new “El Dorado,” luring those in search of the proverbial gold.
Here, a new causeway is being built a mile into the ocean, part of a $1.2 billion port project that aims to connect this once remote corner of Africa with other parts of the continent, South America, and Europe. Officials and investors hope to export phosphate, gas, and fish – and other minerals such as oil from other African countries as well as green hydrogen and ammonia from local wind and solar farms – far beyond its shores.
Already, tourists are beginning to pour in on new flight routes to stay in newly constructed hotels. A new airport is slated to open to accommodate the new boom in tourism.
Aside from sunseekers and windsurfers, Moroccan officials say they are welcoming a steady stream of private investors and foreign officials these days, according to Bloomberg. Investment, currently at $10 billion, is expected to quadruple in 15 years.
“The Western Sahara has gone from a disputed territory that was radioactive to foreign investors to an increasingly normal region that’s receiving a growing flow of capital,” Riccardo Fabiani of the International Crisis Group told the financial newswire.
It’s obvious to see the political changes, too, in this disputed territory that is mostly under Moroccan control, that some call “Africa’s last colony,” analysts say.
Recently, the United Kingdom threw its support behind Morocco’s proposal for autonomy for Western Sahara, a plan which would allow Morocco to retain control over defense, foreign policy and its currency, the Moroccan dirham, marking a shift in its position on one of Africa’s longest-running territorial disputes, the Guardian noted.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the plan was “the most credible, viable and pragmatic” way to resolve one of Africa’s longest-running and “most frustrating” regional conflicts and also counter Russian expansion in the Sahel region, mitigate irregular immigration to Europe, and take advantage of the economic opportunities.
The shift in policy in the West on Moroccan claims of the territory was led by the United States in 2020, which analysts say set off the investment boom. Spain changed its stance in 2022 and France, two years later.
Still, the new energy, excitement, and investment in the region belies the turmoil that is promising to heat up again, wrote Foreign Affairs.
Morocco, which says the Western Sahara is historically part of its country, a claim the International Court of Justice disputes, has controlled the territory since 1975, when the Spanish withdrew their colonial claims. From that time, it fought the pro-independence group, the Polisario Front, backed by Algeria, in a conflict that killed thousands until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire in 1991.
That left three-quarters of the territory under Moroccan control. The rest, controlled by the Polisario Front, hosted refugee camps for displaced Sahrawis, as the local population is called.
Still, Moroccan claims were not recognized by most of the world, while the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic proclaimed by the Polisario Front was recognized by more than 40 countries.
Meanwhile, the UN lists the region as a non-self-governing territory and has tried to hold a referendum on independence for more than 30 years but never has due to issues over who would be eligible to vote.
That’s in part because of Morocco’s resettlement policies: For decades, it has lured Moroccans with incentives to resettle in the region.
Still, analysts say the recognition by the US, France, and now the UK has left Algeria – where 170,000 Sahrawis live in refugee camps – simmering and the Polisario ready to escalate its fight because it says it has no choice.
So far, the Polisario has declared the ceasefire dead and has taken its fight to international courts, arguing that Morocco does not have the right to profit from resources belonging to the Sahrawi people while the conflict remains unresolved. Rulings in its favor could hinder the boom.
For example, in October 2024, European courts annulled two European Union-Morocco trade agreements covering fishing and agriculture, ruling that the deals lacked the required “consent of the people of Western Sahara,” according to New Arab magazine.
Still, the Sahrawis from Western Sahara are not unanimous about the future of their territory.
Some, like Kamal Fadel, a lawyer from Western Sahara based in Australia, say that most reject the Moroccan plan and want a referendum to decide.
“The autonomy proposal is not a step toward peace, it is a sophisticated attempt to entrench occupation and delay justice, rooted in imperial logic, not international law,” he wrote in Modern Diplomacy. “It ignores the clear legal, moral, and political rights of the Sahrawi people to choose their own future.”
Still, Sarah Zaaimi of the Atlantic Council, who is Sahrawi also, recounted conversations with dozens of people in the Moroccan-held portion of the territory for a field study and found that most expressed extreme fatigue from five decades of conflict and a desire for normality and prosperity. They hope, she said, that the Moroccan plan would bring that change and tackle the region’s issues – corruption and the trafficking of drugs, people, and stolen humanitarian aid.
“Now, the time is up,” she wrote. “The Sahrawi communities can no longer afford another 50 years of political stalemate.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Iran-Israel Ceasefire Holds Amid Lingering Questions Over Tehran’s Nuclear Program
IRAN / ISRAEL
The ceasefire between Iran and Israel held Wednesday, with both sides claiming victory, despite questions over the impact of Israeli and American airstrikes on Tehran’s nuclear program, even as Iranian officials now pledge to accelerate it, CBS News reported.
Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, say the operation to destroy Iran’s nuclear sites was a “historic victory,” claiming it had set Iran’s nuclear ambitions back “many years.” US President Donald Trump echoed those remarks, saying Iran’s program was pushed back “basically decades.”
On Wednesday, US intelligence officials said there was “credible intelligence” that Iran’s program was “severely damaged,” according to the BBC. The statement came a day after classified US military intelligence reportedly showed a more modest impact, estimating the delay to Iran’s nuclear program to be only by “months,” CNN noted.
Meanwhile, Iranian officials admitted Wednesday that the nuclear sites were “badly damaged” by the strikes.
Fighting broke out on June 13 after Israel attacked Iran. Since then, the two had exchanged drone and missile strikes until Monday, attacks that have left 28 people dead in Israel and hundreds in Iran, including senior military officials.
The United States also intervened, striking three Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend.
The fighting came to a halt after the Trump administration brokered a ceasefire, with Trump later enforcing the deal personally after both countries breached it soon after it took effect Monday.
Both Israel and Iran were quick to claim victory afterward.
Iran has tried to present its limited retaliatory attack on Monday targeting the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, home to thousands of US forces personnel, as a victory, despite none of the missiles hitting their target.
Meanwhile, Iranian officials said that the country intends not only to resume but accelerate its nuclear program – now without any oversight by the United Nations’ atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
On Wednesday, Iran’s parliament passed a bill to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, a move analysts said could speed up Tehran’s nuclear development.
The proposed law would block inspections and halt data sharing with the IAEA.
Under the draft, future site visits would require approval from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Reuters added.
The legislation followed a rare censure of Iran by the IAEA earlier this month for failing to cooperate with inspectors – the agency’s first such move against Tehran in 20 years.
Iran said the agency’s resolution helped pave the way for Israel’s June 13 strikes and insisted its nuclear program remains peaceful.
Ukraine To Sign Off on Special Tribunal for Senior Russian Officials
RUSSIA/ UKRAINE
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy approved the creation of a new special international tribunal on Wednesday, a court that would prosecute senior Russian officials for their involvement in the invasion of Ukraine, the Associated Press reported.
The tribunal, to be set up through an agreement between Ukraine and the Council of Europe – the continent’s top human rights body – aims to try senior Russian leaders for the “crime of aggression,” a charge which underpins all the war crimes Ukraine has accused Russia of committing since the start of the conflict in early 2022.
Existing international courts, including the International Criminal Court in The Hague, don’t have the jurisdiction to prosecute Russian nationals for that specific offense.
Since the early stages of the conflict, Ukraine has advocated for the establishment of a dedicated tribunal that goes beyond prosecuting war crimes that Ukraine alleges Russian forces have committed such as the killing of civilians, rape, and torture. Russia denies those claims.
The new court will face hurdles in attempting to try Russians, however: One, for example, would be that Russia does not extradite its own citizens. Another is that sitting heads of state and some top officials generally hold immunity from prosecution while they are in office, according to international law.
The court would be funded by supporting countries known as the Core Group, including the Netherlands, Japan, and Canada. The US under the Biden administration backed the idea but not under the Trump administration.
The move to set up the tribunal comes as Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukraine over the past month.
On Tuesday, Russia attacked the industrial Dnipropetrovsk region in Ukraine, killing at least 19 people and wounding over 300. Russian forces claimed to have reached the border of the region, gaining ground there for the first time since the start of the war, the Guardian wrote.
Meanwhile, Russian air defense units shot down dozens of Ukrainian drones across various regions, including over 40 in the Voronezh region on the Ukrainian border, according to Al Jazeera.
Zelenskyy wrote on X that Russia and Ukraine are not getting closer to a ceasefire because “Russia wants to wage war.”
‘No Space for Bezos:’ Venetian Protesters Hound Amazon Founder’s Nuptials
ITALY
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez arrived in Venice on Wednesday ahead of their four-day wedding extravaganza, an event that has set off protests that have already forced the billionaire to move the nuptials to a new location, the BBC reported.
The lavish wedding celebrations, scheduled to start on Thursday and last until Saturday, are expected to jam Venice’s airport and canals with private jets and yachts, respectively. Five hotels in the city have been completely booked to accommodate a guest list that is reported to include Kim Kardashian, Mick Jagger, and Ivanka Trump.
While the venues for the three-day gala were never officially reported, the celebration that was set to take place on Saturday at the Scuola Grande della Misericordia, a cavernous venue in northern Venice that dates to 1583, was changed to the Arsenale – a more secure location further away from the city center – after protesters threatened to block the canal with inflatable crocodiles, France 24 reported.
Protesters called the change an “enormous victory.”
The protesters belong to various groups, including locals fighting against overtourism and the housing crisis, climate change activists, and those who dislike Bezos’ support for US President Donald Trump.
“Bezos comes to Venice only for the party, that’s the problem: This vision of Venice not as a city anymore but like a big theme park where you can hire pieces or all of it and just do your private thing,” Tommaso Cacciari, from No Space for Bezos group, told the BBC.
While the crocodile protest has been called off, protesters say they will continue their demonstrations through Saturday. “No Space for Bezos” posters have been plastered across the city while another group called Everyone Hates Elon unfurled a giant poster of Bezos in Piazza San Marco, reading, “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, then you can pay more tax.”
City officials, meanwhile, have denounced the demonstrations as “ridiculous” and say the event is an important source of income for Venice.
“These protesters behave as if they own Venice but they don’t,” Simone Venturini, a local politician, told the BBC.
DISCOVERIES
Making Color
Scholars have long known that Egyptian blue pigment, the world’s oldest synthetic pigment, was a highly prized commodity in ancient times.
Existing in ancient Egypt about 5,000 years ago, it was used in place of expensive minerals like turquoise or lapis lazuli and was used to paint wood, stone, and a papier-mâché-type material called cartonnage.
Still, there has always been limited archaeological evidence of how Egyptian blue was produced. The Romans used the pigment after the Egyptians but by the Renaissance period, the knowledge on how to make it was mostly lost – until now.
“It started out just as something that was fun to do because they asked us to produce some materials to put on display at the museum,” said lead study author John McCloy, part of a team that managed to recreate the color, in a statement. “But there’s a lot of interest in the material.”
To study the composition of the pigment, the researchers created 12 different recipes from mixtures of silicon dioxide, copper, calcium, and sodium carbonate. They then heated the material at approximately 1830 degrees Fahrenheit for between one and 11 hours to replicate the temperatures they think would have been accessible for Egyptian artists.
They then cooled the samples at different rates and studied the pigments using modern microscopy and analysis techniques never before used in this type of research.
They compared their results with ancient Egyptian artifacts from the Carnegie Museum, which, along with the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute, collaborated on the study.
Egyptian blue came in a range of shades, varying based on the production location and quality. Depending on the ingredients used and the processing time, the color could range from deep blue to dull gray or green. The study showed that the pigment is very diverse in composition.
“You had some people who were making the pigment and then transporting it, and then the final use was somewhere else,” said McCloy. “With just small differences in the process, you got very different results.”
Surprisingly, they found that to obtain even the bluest color, only about 50 percent of the blue-colored components are needed.
“It doesn’t matter what the rest of it is, which was really quite surprising to us,” said McCloy. “You can see that every single pigment particle has a bunch of stuff in it – it’s not uniform by any means.”
Researchers say the study results could help in the restoration of ancient artifacts that used this prized pigment.
Also, there is interest in how to produce this pigment because of its optical, magnetic, and biological properties, and its potential for new technological applications.
That’s because the pigment emits light in the near-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum – which the human eye can’t see – so it could be used for counterfeit-proof ink, for example. It also shares chemical similarities with high-temperature superconductors.