Michael Rubin: MINURSO Has Become Useless After U.S. Recognition of Morocco’s Sovereignty Over the Sahara

By Michael Rubin*

United Nations officials remain in a state of panic over President Donald Trump’s budget cuts. For decades, the United States has talked about reform and even questioned its contributions to the UN budget, but most administrations have approached the issue with extreme caution. Populist politicians, on the other hand, have called for drastic cuts to curb the UN’s bureaucratic inflation. Trump’s team, however, arrived armed with an axe in one hand and a chainsaw in the other.

Trump and the UN could save billions of dollars by eliminating ineffective peacekeeping missions.

Some peacekeeping missions have indeed succeeded. In Liberia, Sierra Leone, East Timor, and Côte d’Ivoire, peacekeepers provided space for governments to establish themselves and turn the page on conflict and civil war. But other missions have not only been costly failures but may have also contributed to prolonging conflicts.

Take, for example, the issue of Western Sahara, a sparsely populated region on Africa’s northwest coast. In 1991, the UN Security Council established the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). Its objective was clear: to organize a referendum for the region’s inhabitants to determine whether they wanted to join Morocco or establish their own independent state. But after thirty-four years and billions of dollars spent, MINURSO has not even managed to conduct an official population census. The mission makes excuses, some justified and others not, but time keeps passing.

Today, the United States recognizes Western Sahara as part of Morocco, meaning that it continues to support an organization that betrays a partner in the Abraham Accords—a nation that has always been a strong ally of America. Even the Sahrawis themselves want to join Morocco, which is why the Algeria-backed Polisario refuses to allow refugees in the camps it controls in Tindouf, Algeria, to travel to Morocco to reunite with their families. It holds women and children hostage to prevent refugee resettlement. By funding these camps and legitimizing the Polisario, the UN is contributing to perpetuating the problem rather than solving it. Today, the best way to find MINURSO employees in Western Sahara is to visit the bars in Laayoune or Dakhla, where UN vehicles fill the area.

Financial waste is even more glaring elsewhere. The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) costs more than a billion dollars per year, yet it has not brought peace but rather undermined it. It allowed the criminals responsible for the 1994 genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda to take control of refugee camps, turning them into terrorist breeding grounds that indoctrinate new generations with genocidal hatred. One could argue that corruption, mismanagement, bias, and propaganda within MONUSCO have fueled war rather than achieved peace.

Then there is the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus, now entering its seventh decade of operation. But it is not the oldest—it is the third-longest-running UN peacekeeping mission. Instead of achieving peace, it has become a shield protecting Turkish occupiers, enabling them to solidify their presence, bring in settlers, and change the demographic composition. The Multinational Force and Observers in Sinai succeeded because it did not operate under UN constraints. Perhaps it is time for Europe to test its army by replacing the UN on the dividing line in Cyprus. As for the Argentinians, Britons, and Slovaks working in the UN mission in Cyprus, they can enjoy the beach at their own expense.

If the UN wants to avoid facing Trump’s chainsaw, Secretary-General António Guterres must act immediately: It is time to end outdated peacekeeping missions that, at best, do nothing and, at worst, fuel conflicts. Trump and Congress must insist that there be no more permanent peacekeeping missions; their maximum duration should be 10 years, with no extensions. If more time is needed, a decade should be enough to establish temporary operations without the bureaucratic constraints of the UN.

*Washington Examiner