Thread by @jonlis1

This is a major geopolitical catastrophe.

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1337067127455539201

Very few people in Britain know about Western Sahara but its refugee camps are the second-longest operating in the world (after the Palestinian ones) and the frozen conflict is always at risk of unfreezing. This is a major provocation and completely unacceptable.

No country in the world has formally accepted Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara. The UN lists it as a non-self-governing territory and has been waiting to implement a referendum there since 1988. This decision cannot, must not, stand.

I wrote a report on Western Sahara in 2013 and spent time both in the territory and refugee camps in southern Algeria. It has an incredibly delicate balance that desperately needs diplomatic attention from a world that keeps ignoring it. This is profoundly destabilising.

I hope and expect @DominicRaab, and the EU, to issue strong statements underlining the importance of a diplomatic solution to Western Sahara and rejecting unilateral recognition of sovereignty over an area many consider occupied. This is now a serious test.