Morocco names Tiznit-Dakhla highway after Trump: Why it matters

The announcement by United States President Donald Trump that Morocco had named an important road aft him came arsenic a astonishment to many, not slightest due to the fact that Rabat itself has remained silent.

In a station connected his Truth Social level connected Monday, Trump thanked Morocco’s monarch, King Mohammed VI, and said helium looked guardant to travelling connected the “Great Highway 1 day”.

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If confirmed, however, experts accidental the motion would beryllium acold from surprising. Morocco and the US person agelong enjoyed adjacent ties, and some of Trump’s administrations were peculiarly beneficial for Rabat.

Morocco was 1 of the signatories to the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords, which saw the state normalise relations with US state Israel successful 2020. In return, the Trump medication provided important enactment astatine the United Nations and done bilateral channels, bringing Rabat person to securing greater power implicit the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

“So absolutely, it makes cleanable consciousness that Morocco would bash thing similar this for Trump, who single-handedly moved that lawsuit guardant – the lone American medication to springiness Morocco what it ever wanted, which is overmuch clearer enactment connected Western Sahara,” expert Intissar Fakir of the Middle East Institute told Al Jazeera.

What is much striking, she said, is the timing. The Trump medication sponsored a solution endorsing Morocco’s presumption astatine the UN Security Council (UNSC) successful October 2025. So wherefore is the designation coming now?

“In my opinion, this is tied to Morocco’s ambitions to big the shot last of the 2030 World Cup,” Fakir said, referring to the tourney that volition beryllium cohosted by Spain, Portugal and Morocco.

Alternatively, she said, it whitethorn simply beryllium that the conception of the road reportedly dedicated to Trump has lone precocious been completed.

What is clear, however, is that the road forms portion of a broader web of infrastructure projects aimed astatine strengthening Morocco’s clasp implicit the long-disputed territory, wherever an independency conflict has continued for 5 decades successful what is wide regarded arsenic a frozen conflict.

A emblem of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, proclaimed by the separatist Polisario Front, flies astatine a checkpoint manned by Sahrawi information forces extracurricular a exile camp, astir 170km southeast of the Algerian metropolis of Tindouf [File: Ryad Kramdi/AFP]

A road for Rabat’s ambitions

After a decennary of construction, the Tiznit-Dakhla road became afloat operational successful January.

The 1,055km (655.5-mile) road links confederate Morocco with Mauritania and carries a terms tag of astir $1bn.

It runs from Tiznit done Guelmim and Tan-Tan earlier reaching Laayoune, the main metropolis successful Morocco-controlled Western Sahara, and continues southbound to the Dakhla Peninsula, wherever Morocco is gathering the Dakhla Atlantic Port.

Rabat has agelong sought to usage its presumption betwixt the Mediterranean and the Atlantic to found itself arsenic a determination commercialized gateway, connecting Europe with Africa and the Sahel done onshore and oversea routes.

Since 2023, Morocco has promoted what it calls the Atlantic Initiative, offering Atlantic larboard entree to landlocked Sahel countries specified arsenic Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Between 2004 and 2024, African exports done Morocco roseate from $300m to $3bn, according to the German deliberation vessel Konrad Adenauer Stiftung. Rabat was besides among the archetypal countries to motion the African Continental Free Trade Area statement successful 2018, giving it entree to the continent’s tariff-free azygous market.

The long-disputed territory

Crucially, the Trump Highway runs done Western Sahara, a UN-designated non-self-governing territory that Morocco calls its “southern provinces” and wherever it has invested heavy successful roads, ports and different infrastructure implicit the past 2 decades.

Analysts accidental those projects are portion of a broader effort to fortify Morocco’s clasp implicit the disputed territory.

Morocco claims the phosphate- and fisheries-rich erstwhile Spanish colony, portion the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks independency for Western Sahara, declared the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) aft Spain withdrew successful 1975.

A 16-year warfare followed, forcing hundreds of thousands of Sahrawis to fly to exile camps astir Tindouf successful occidental Algeria. UN humanitarian agencies estimation that astir 173,600 Sahrawi refugees unrecorded successful the camps, though Morocco disputes those figures and has agelong called connected the UN to behaviour a census there.

In 1991, a UN-brokered ceasefire ended the warring and was meant to pave the mode for a referendum connected self-determination. But disputes implicit elector eligibility and the presumption of the ballot near the process deadlocked.

Some Sahrawi groups and Morocco’s critics person agelong accused Rabat of exploiting Western Sahara’s earthy resources.

“Over the years, we’ve documented increasing investment, peculiarly successful renewable energy, agriculture, fisheries and infrastructure,” Erik Hagen of Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) told Al Jazeera.

The territory’s phosphate reserves stay 1 of its astir invaluable assets. About 2 cardinal tonnes of phosphate stone were mined successful Western Sahara successful 2025, according to WSRW.

Al Jazeera requested remark from Moroccan authorities.

Currently, the bulk of the disputed territory is controlled by Morocco, portion the Polisario Front controls a constrictive portion on the borders with Algeria and Mauritania. Separating the 2 sides is simply a fortified soil obstruction guarded by Moroccan soldiers.

In November 2020, the Polisario Front, which continues to propulsion for a referendum connected self-determination, declared an extremity to the 1991 ceasefire and announced that it was resuming equipped conflict against Morocco. A period later, connected December 10, 2020, the Trump medication recognised Morocco’s sovereignty implicit Western Sahara, becoming the archetypal Western authorities to bash so.

Washington reinforced that presumption successful October 2025, erstwhile it sponsored a UNSC solution calling for negotiations connected Western Sahara to proceed connected the ground of Morocco’s autonomy proposal.

The connection would assistance the territory a grade of self-government portion remaining nether Moroccan sovereignty, an statement often compared with Spain’s autonomous regions specified arsenic the Canary Islands oregon Catalonia.

A US-brokered way to peace?

Algeria was among the astir vocal critics of the UNSC resolution.

Relations betwixt Rabat and Algiers person agelong been tense. Algeria views enactment for the Sahrawi radical successful Western Sahara arsenic a halfway rule of its overseas policy, shaped by its ain bloody warfare of independency against French assemblage rule.

But Algiers is besides competing with Morocco for power successful the Maghreb, and its backing of the Polisario Front gives it important leverage implicit Morocco’s information calculations, analysts say.

Morocco’s normalisation of relations with Israel successful 2020 deepened tensions betwixt the neighbours, and diplomatic relations stay severed.

In 2024, France endorsed Morocco’s autonomy program for Western Sahara and declared that the territory’s aboriginal should prevarication wrong the model of Moroccan sovereignty, prompting Algeria to callback its ambassador from Paris.

A imaginable denotation of renewed diplomatic engagement came successful February, erstwhile Washington said it had facilitated discussions successful Madrid involving Morocco, the Polisario Front, Algeria and Mauritania implicit the implementation of a UN Security Council solution connected Western Sahara.

US Africa envoy Massad Boulos reportedly led Washington-facilitated talks successful Madrid and consequent discussions successful the US. He aboriginal told journalists that the struggle was “on the way to resolution”.

Analysts accidental Algeria’s willingness to prosecute successful the talks could suggest a readiness to easiness its opposition, peculiarly arsenic its ties with Washington person stabilised.

“Algiers does not needfully spot the Rabat-Washington narration arsenic threatening to Algerian interests,” Zine Labidine Ghebouli of the Arab Reform Initiative told Al Jazeera. The US has managed to support ties with some Morocco and Algeria, helium said, thing different starring powers person struggled to do.

The US Department of Commerce said this week it would money the aboriginal stages of an ammonium task successful Western Sahara, marking a important first. The determination adds a caller economical magnitude to a struggle that has agelong been shaped by diplomacy, information and competing claims implicit the territory.