It was a more confident Mohamed Abdelaziz who led the 11th congress of his Polisario Front last weekend, knowing that his exiled people have Morocco on the back foot.
The North African kingdom has occupied the Western Sahara, which it invaded in 1975, in defiance of the international community.
This year King Mohammed VI admitted that after 12 years of delaying implementation of a United Nations settlement plan, Morocco had no intention of ending its illegal occupation.
Polisario, on the other hand, has taken a different tack, winning international support for major concessions announced in July to break the logjam.
The congress was held at Tifariti, more than 350km inside the territory liberated by Polisario fighters before the 1991 ceasefire.
Polisario officials said this illustrated their determination to make the final push to independence.
Abdelaziz, who was returned as secretary general of the party, once again reassured Morocco that the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) would respect the kingdom’s regional interests when the desert territory gained full independence.
The SADR is a member of the African Union and is recognised by a majority of countries on the continent. Morocco has excluded itself from the AU in protest against this recognition.
Abdelaziz told the more than 1 600 delegates and party representatives from as far afield as Australia and Latin America that Morocco would have to quit the mineral-rich territory.
The Western Sahara’s potential was underlined by the presence at the congress of two oil companies — Anglo-Australian Fusion Oil & Gas and British Premier Oil — that have been heartened by results of exploring offshore and intend to continue their operations in terms of agreements signed with the SADR.
“Morocco will back down because colonialism is a notion of the past and can’t be a justification anymore for holding on to Western Sahara,” Abdelaziz said.
“The international community does not support Morocco’s position any more,” he added.
He was referring to the UN Security Council decision in July to make the Western Sahara a semi-autonomous part of Morocco for four to five years.
A referendum would then let residents choose between independence, continued autonomy or integration with the Moroccan kingdom.
Although Morocco originally proposed this plan, it has since accepted that any referendum will end in a vote for full independence of the SADR.
Nevertheless Abdelaziz said the Polisario remained open to working with Morocco to achieve peace.
“We don’t represent any threat to Morocco. We are ready to work with them,” he said.
“We’re ready to share with them our daily bread. We’re also ready to study with them their concerns about their nationality status when Western Sahara becomes independent,” he said.
Abdelaziz warned, however, that younger members of the 300 000 Saharawi refugee community living in camps outside the Algerian town of Tindouf were growing impatient.
“A lot of our people say we can’t wait any longer. They say Moroccan colonialism understands only one language, the language of arms and war,” he said.
President Thabo Mbeki has repeatedly called for an end to what he calls Africa’s last colonial problem. He has, however, yielded to pressure from France and the United States and stopped short of full recognition of the SADR.
Paris and Washington are convinced that losing the Western Sahara would mean the end of the shaky Moroccan royal family that controls only parts of the kingdom.
France is fearful of the impact this will have on regional stability and the US values the mediation role Morocco once played in the Middle East.
Nevertheless the SADR has a diplomatic presence in Pretoria, with full access to the South African government.