EU Says Position on Western Sahara Unchanged

EU flags flutter in front of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 2, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
EU flags flutter in front of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 2, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
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EU Says Position on Western Sahara Unchanged

EU flags flutter in front of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 2, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
EU flags flutter in front of the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium October 2, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo

The European Union reiterated Wednesday that its position remains unchanged regarding the status of Western Sahara, saying none of the EU states recognizes the self-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) announced by the Polisario front in 1976.

Responding to a question about whether an invitation could be extended to the separatists to take part in the European Union-African Union summit, which opens Thursday in Brussels, the EU Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Peter Stano, stated that the EU did not invite the Polisario.

The EU is co-organizing the summit with the AU, and each organization is responsible for inviting its members. It is therefore the African Union that has taken responsibility for inviting its members.

The EU could not interfere in the AU’s decisions with regard to its members.

Stano said that the AU gesture “does not change the position of the European Union.”

He further reiterated that none of the EU’s 27 members recognizes the SADR or its leadership’s goal for a breakaway state in Western Sahara.

Europe’s position was previously stated in Abidjan, the Ivory Coast, in 2017. At the time, Brussels said it does not recognize the legitimacy of the SADR claims to Moroccan regions in Western Sahara.

More than 850 Sahrawi NGOs active in the area of human rights and sustainable development have strongly rejected the participation of the military leader of Polisario in the summit.

In a letter sent to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, and the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, the NGOs expressed their astonishment and their rejection of the participation in the EU-AU summit “of a man and an organization responsible for serious violations of human rights and misappropriation of European aid."

"For us, it is incomprehensible and highly condemnable", said the 852 NGOs that signed the petition sent to the three senior European officials.



Weaponization of Food in Gaza Constitutes War Crime, UN Rights Office Says

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches among the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in west of Gaza City, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches among the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in west of Gaza City, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
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Weaponization of Food in Gaza Constitutes War Crime, UN Rights Office Says

A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches among the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in west of Gaza City, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A tent camp for displaced Palestinians stretches among the ruins of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardments in west of Gaza City, Saturday, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

The UN human rights office said on Tuesday that the "weaponization" of food for civilians in Gaza constitutes a war crime, in its strongest remarks yet on a new model of aid distribution run by an Israeli-backed organization.

Over 410 people have been killed by gunshots or shells fired by the Israeli military while trying to reach distribution sites of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation since it began work in late May, UN human rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters at a Geneva press briefing.

The death toll has been independently verified by his office, he added.

"Desperate, hungry people in Gaza continue to face the inhumane choice of either starving to death or risk being killed while trying to get food," he said, describing the system as "Israel's militarized humanitarian assistance mechanism".

"The weaponization of food for civilians, in addition to restricting or preventing their access to life-sustaining services, constitutes a war crime and, under certain circumstances, may constitute elements of other crimes under international law."

Asked whether Israel was guilty of that war crime, he said: "The legal qualification needs to be made by a court of law."

Israel rejects war crimes charges in Gaza and blames Hamas fighters for harm to civilians for operating among them, which the fighters deny.