June 24, 2025
Mr. Wilson of South Carolina (for himself and Mr. Panetta) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
To provide for the imposition of sanctions with respect to the Polisario Front, and for other purposes.
Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Polisario Front Terrorist Designation Act
.
Sec. 2. Findings
Congress finds the following:
(1)
The Polisario Front, founded in 1973, is a separatist group operating primarily in Western Sahara and the Tindouf region of Algeria, seeking independence for Western Sahara from Moroccan sovereignty.
(2)
The Polisario Front has a documented history of ideological and operational ties with Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism, dating back at least to 1980, when Polisario fighters publicly posed with portraits of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in a bid to attract revolutionary credibility and Iranian patronage.
(3)
According to reporting by Jeune Afrique, 3 Hezbollah officers served as trainers in the Tindouf camps in 2018. One of the named trainers, since killed in a November 2023 Israeli airstrike in Syria, had previously been sanctioned by the United States for orchestrating the 2007 Karbala raid in Iraq that killed 5 American soldiers.
(4)
Iran’s support has reportedly advanced from training to the provision of lethal hardware. In a 2022 livestream, Polisario Interior Minister
Omar Mansour stated that his fighters were training on assembling and operating armed drones
. A year later, images disseminated via Polisario-controlled social media channels showed Iranian-type munitions, as confirmed by open-source weapons researchers.
(5)
The Washington Post reported in April 2025 that Iran has trained Polisario Front fighters and provided them with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), deepening concerns about the group's growing capabilities and external sponsorship.
(6)
The Syrian wing of the PKK, a designated terrorist organization, took part in the front's meeting called Sahrawi Solidarity Summit
in the Sahrawi camps on January 4–7 2025.
Sec. 3. Report
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate Congressional committees a report on the Polisario Front to include the following:
(1)
A description of the Polisario Front’s leadership, military operations, and foreign sponsorship.
(2)
A description of the Polisario Front’s relationships, support, funding, and associations with Iran and Russia.
(3)
A description of the Polisario Front’s relationships, support, funding and associations with Foreign Terrorist Organizations Hezbollah, the IRGC, and the PKK.
(4)
A description and analysis of whether the Polisario Front has ever intentionally attacked civilian targets.
Sec. 4. Determinations with respect to the imposition of sanctions against the Polisario Front
(a) Determinations by the Secretary of State
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate Congressional committees a determination, including a detailed justification, of whether the Polisario Front meets the criteria for—
(1)
designation as a foreign terrorist organization under section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189); and
(2)
imposition of sanctions under section 1263 of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (subtitle F of title XII of Public Law 114–328; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note).
(b) Determination by the Secretary of the Treasury
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall submit to the appropriate Congressional committees a determination, including a detailed justification, of whether the Polisario Front meets the criteria for the imposition of sanctions under Executive Order 13224 (50 U.S.C. 1701).
(c) Form
The determinations required by subsections (a) and (b) shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified annex.
Sec. 5. Waiver
The designations and sanctions described in section (4) of this bill may be waived by the President if it is determined that the Polisario Front is engaged in good faith negotiations to implement the autonomy plan for the Western Sahara put forward by the Kingdom of Morocco and submitted to the UN Security Council in 2007, which proposes granting the Sahrawi people a high degree of self-governance within a framework of Moroccan sovereignty.