Nouakchott is required to clarify its position on a project that passes through the occupied coasts
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Hamdi Yahdah: Morocco wants to open a new crossing towards Bir Umm Qarin, and Nouakchott does not mind
Blani: The Mauritanian authorities must clarify their obligations in the project and its legal conditions
Questions are increasing regarding the role played by Mauritania in the Atlantic gas pipeline project between Nigeria and Morocco, in light of indications of the progress of the related arrangements, and growing fears that Nouakchott will become a party in a Moroccan effort to impose a new economic and political reality on Western Sahara, which goes beyond the energy considerations of the project and places it before legal and political consequences related to the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination.
This development adds more ambiguity to the nature of Moroccan movements towards Nouakchott, represented by the unannounced visit of Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita to the Mauritanian capital on Friday, November 6, during which he met with President Mohamed Ould Sheikh Ghazouani and Mauritanian officials, before leaving on the same day.
The Mauritanian Independent News Agency reported the details of the visit, quoting private sources, while the Moroccan newspaper “Ya Biladi” circulated the news, without any official announcement from either side revealing the nature of the discussions or the files they dealt with.
This move gains special importance in view of its timing, which coincides with the rapid developments in the Western Sahara file, and the accompanying attempts to rearrange regional positions, which opens the door to questions regarding the messages that the Moroccan official carried to Nouakchott, and the extent to which these communications are related to the files raised between the two countries, most notably the Atlantic gas pipeline.
In this context, two readings intersect, presented by the expert on Maghreb affairs, Hamdi Yahdhi, and former ambassador Ammar Blani. The first raises fears of Moroccan pressure aimed at luring Mauritania into supporting the occupation, while the second focuses on the technical and legal data related to the route of the pipeline, and what may result from Nouakchott’s involvement in a project that includes the territorial waters or the exclusive economic zone of Western Sahara.
In a statement to Al-Shorouk, Hamdi Yahdih believes that Sahrawi doubts about the nature of Moroccan movements towards Mauritania are inseparable from Rabat’s efforts to employ bilateral relations to consolidate its occupation of Western Sahara, considering that issues related to the borders, the Lakouira region, the Atlantic Initiative, and the gas pipeline cannot be dealt with as separate files from the Sahrawi conflict.
The expert warns that the circulation of data regarding Mauritania’s secret acceptance of arrangements related to the Atlantic Initiative and the route of the gas pipeline, in addition to talk about an Emirati project to establish a port in Lagouira, raises fears that Nouakchott will be implicated in arrangements that affect desert lands and waters, and give the Moroccan occupation regional cover for projects aimed at bypassing the legal status of the region.
In this context, he highlights the focus of the Moroccan discourse on what he calls the “Mauritanian-Moroccan part” of the gas pipeline, considering that this designation aims to involve Mauritania in a project whose route passes an important part along the Sahrawi coasts, the length of which is estimated within the path in question at about 1,110 kilometers, which, according to him, raises the issue of the right of the Sahrawi people to approve the exploitation of these coasts and their resources.
The expert also links Moroccan moves to what he describes as attempts to exploit UAE economic aid and promises to encourage Mauritania to engage in regional arrangements that serve Rabat’s interests, warning that external support is governed by interests and ambitions, and cannot be relied upon to ensure Mauritania’s stability or protect its sovereignty.
In this regard, the spokesman revealed to Al-Shorouk, saying: “I learned that among Mauritania’s consultations with Morocco, it wants it to accept the opening of a new crossing starting from Iqla towards Bir Umm Qarin in Mauritania, and that Nouakchott does not mind and only stipulates that the Moroccan army protects it as it protects Al-Qarqarat, and that Morocco says that it will pass from the point where the sand belt touches the Mauritanian border.”
From a legal and diplomatic angle, former Ambassador Ammar Balani places the developments of the project in a more sensitive context, based on the statements of the Director General of the Nigerian Oil Company, Bashir Bayo Ojulari, who announced on November 5 in Abu Dhabi that the concerned countries had concluded the necessary agreements, suggesting that Morocco and Mauritania have completed the remaining procedures after the ECOWAS countries signed the intergovernmental agreement in Freetown – the capital of Sierra Leone – on July 19, 2026.
Blani points out that the most sensitive aspect of the project relates to the marine route, pointing out that the Moroccan National Office of Hydrocarbons and Minerals had previously announced, in January 2024, the conduct of exploration and bathymetric studies of the marine route in the Dakhla region, confirming the extension of technical studies to the territorial waters of Western Sahara.
The former Algerian ambassador stresses that Western Sahara is still included in the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories, and enjoys a separate international status from Morocco, which does not have a legal basis for sovereignty over the territory, its airspace, or its territorial waters, recalling the rulings of the Court of Justice of the European Union issued on October 4, 2024, which stressed the necessity of obtaining the consent of the Sahrawi people through their legitimate representative regarding agreements affecting their territory and resources.
Thus, Blani places the Mauritanian authorities with the responsibility of clarifying the nature of their obligations in the project, and the legal conditions that will frame their participation, especially if the approved path includes the territorial waters or the exclusive economic zone adjacent to Western Sahara, warning that engaging in an energy infrastructure aimed at integrating the occupied territory into the Moroccan system, without prior settlement of its international status, poses serious political and legal problems.
The readings put forward by Yahzih and Blani reveal the essence of the problem surrounding the Atlantic gas pipeline, as the project is no longer just an infrastructure for transporting energy between Africa and Europe, but rather has become linked to regional balances and attempts to use economic cooperation to impose facts that conflict with the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination.
In light of these facts, Nouakchott’s silence or the ambiguity of its position do not dispel fears, but rather raise questions about the limits of its involvement in a project whose repercussions go beyond economic calculations to the heart of the conflict in Western Sahara.
