RABAT (Reuters) -Belgium has become the latest Western nation to endorse Morocco’s autonomy proposal as a solution for the decades-long Western Sahara dispute, according to a joint Moroccan-Belgian declaration signed Thursday.

The long-frozen conflict, dating back to 1975, pits Morocco, which considers the desert territory as its own, against the Algeria-backed Polisario front, which seeks an independent state there.

Autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty “is the most adequate, serious, credible and realistic basis to reach a political solution” to the Western Sahara issue, Belgium said in the joint declaration signed in Brussels by Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita and Belgian foreign minister and deputy prime minister Maxime Prevot.

Morocco’s autonomy plan has the backing of the U

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