One is the loneliest number . . .

Earlier this month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s reminded the world of the unchanged US support for Morocco’s “serious, realistic, and credible” compromise autonomy proposal to end the three-decades old Western Sahara conflict.  Days after, two more countries officially withdrew recognition and support of the “Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic” (SADR) “the pseudo country” run by the Polisario Front in southern Algeria.   

         Zambia’s Foreign Minister, Kabinga J. Pande confirmed that his country officially “withdrew its recognition of the SADR on March 29, 2011.” Zambia joins Papua New Guinea, which also withdrew its recognition of SADR in March and nearly 50 other nations that have done the same.

As Secretary Clinton said, the Clinton, Bush, and Obama Administrations have supported the Moroccan autonomy plan as have bi-partisan majorities of both the US House and Senate.

In 2007, King Mohammed VI submitted the proposal to the United Nations in order to peacefully resolve a conflict from a “long-gone era” and to give a voice to thousands of Sahrawis being held in refugee camps by the Polisario Front in southern Algeria. According to Secretary Clinton, the plan is “a potential approach to satisfy the aspirations of the people in the Western Sahara to run their own affairs in peace and dignity.” The plan would also remove the largest obstacle to regional stability and cooperation in North Africa.