Hours before Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony, the CIA updates its official map by recognizing the Sahara as an integral part of Morocco

Rachid Maboudi
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16:13 – January 19, 2025

A few hours before Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony, scheduled for Monday January 20, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) provided a significant update to its official data. On its website, the American institution modified the map of Morocco, thus confirming the recognition of the Sahara as an integral part of the national territory.

The description accompanying this new map clearly indicates: “Map of Morocco showing major population centers, as well as parts of neighboring countries and the North Atlantic Ocean. Since 2020, the United States has recognized Western Sahara as an integral part of Moroccan territory.

This update is part of a diplomatic context marked by historic American recognition, formalized in December 2020 under the presidency of Donald Trump. This announcement, part of a historic trilateral partnership between Morocco, the United States and Israel, established Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Saharan region.

On the CIA website, a complete fact sheet is now dedicated to the Kingdom, detailing its strategic location, its millennia-old history, its political and economic system, as well as its cultural and demographic diversity. The support of the United States for the Moroccan position marked a turning point in bilateral relations: “The United States recognizes Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara and considers the Moroccan autonomy proposal as the only serious, credible and realistic basis for a lasting political solution.”

Echoing this movement, France, after several years of sometimes tense relations with Morocco, followed suit on July 30, 2024. In a letter addressed to King Mohammed VI, President Emmanuel Macron officially recognized the Moroccan plan to autonomy as “the only credible basis for reaching a political solution to the territorial dispute.”

This series of diplomatic recognitions testifies to the effectiveness of the clear and firm positioning expressed by Morocco, notably in the royal speech delivered on the occasion of the Revolution of the King and the People: “The Sahara question is the prism through which Morocco views its international relations.”