Western Sahara may be inching toward another conflict, as the region’s Algerian-backed separatists retaliate against the growing international acceptance of Morocco’s sovereignty claims. On Nov. 17, the Polisario Front separatist movement officially withdrew from a 1991 U.N.-backed cease-fire agreement with Morocco after Rabat launched a military operation against pro-independence supporters for blocking traffic in the southern town of Guerguerat. In the near term, further demonstrations and/or military provocations by the pro-independence group will raise the risk for more commercial and security disruptions at already tense border crossings in the disputed resource-rich region. The Sahrawi people and Polisario Front separatist movement are growing increasingly frustrated with continued delays to the U.N.-mediated referendum on independence for Western Sahara. On Oct. 30, the U.N.