Western Sahara partition agreement

{{Short description|Treaty between Mauritania and Morocco}}

File:Western Sahara situation January 1976 en.svg

The Western Sahara partition agreement, formally the Convention concerning the State frontier line, was a treaty signed at Rabat on 14 Apr 1976 between Morocco and Mauritania in order to partition the disputed territory of Western Sahara between them following the withdrawal of Spain under the Madrid Accords.[https://leap.unep.org/countries/ma/national-legislation/convention-concerning-state-frontier-line-established-between UN Treaty series No. 15406 (1977)]{{cite book | last=French | first=D. | title=Statehood and Self-Determination: Reconciling Tradition and Modernity in International Law | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2013 | isbn=978-1-107-02933-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ujd84R1TL2AC | access-date=2022-03-07 | page=259}}

The treaty was intended to demarcate the borders between Morocco and Mauritania as part of the split. The border was defined as a straight line from intersection of the coastline and the 24th parallel north, through the intersection of the 23rd parallel north and the 13th meridian west, and continuing until the pre-existing borders of Mauritania.

It was signed by Hamdi Ould Mouknass, the foreign minister of Mauritania and Ahmed Laraki, foreign minister of Morocco.{{Cite news |date=1976-04-16 |title=Le Maroc et la Mauritanie délimitent leur frontière au Sahara occidental |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1976/04/16/le-maroc-et-la-mauritanie-delimitent-leur-frontiere-au-sahara-occidental_2970185_1819218.html |access-date=2025-04-13 |language=fr}}

Mauritania renounced its claim in 1979, due to insurgencies in the region.{{Cite web |title=Western Sahara |url=https://archive.globalpolicy.org/security-council/index-of-countries-on-the-security-council-agenda/western-sahara.html |access-date=2024-01-08 |website=archive.globalpolicy.org}} Morocco subsequently claimed the entirety of Western Sahara.