Polisario: Iran’s Military Arm in North Africa Under Algerian Patronage

ALDAR / Analysis

As European concerns grow over the expanding influence of Iran in Africa, long-ignored files are being brought back to light—chief among them, the file of the “Polisario Front.” No longer seen as a mere separatist movement based in the Tindouf camps in southern Algeria, Polisario is increasingly viewed in international reports as a strategic tool used by the Tehran-Algiers axis to undermine regional stability.

Recently, several French lawmakers called for decisive action against the Algerian regime—not only due to its human rights violations and crackdown on democratic voices, but also because of its open support and hosting of armed groups such as Polisario. Analysts are now describing Polisario as the “North African equivalent of Hezbollah and Hamas.”

In a recent investigative report, The Washington Post revealed that Polisario receives training and logistical support from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), effectively transforming the group into a military extension of Iran in the Maghreb. This growing influence poses a direct threat to the national security of neighboring countries—and even to Europe.

This support is no longer a secret. It was recently confirmed by the former UK Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa, who emphasized the need for this issue to be addressed in European political forums, as it constitutes a direct threat to the collective security of the region.

The Polisario issue can no longer be reduced to an outdated political narrative about “self-determination.” It has become a full-fledged security challenge with regional and international ramifications—one that requires a serious and coordinated European response, particularly as the movement evolves into a proxy in a broader expansionist agenda, bankrolled and armed by rogue states.

Bringing this file to the table in the French or European Parliament is not an attack on a sovereign nation. Rather, it is a stand for regional security and for peoples yearning for peace—far from the politics of arms and destruction.