H.R. 4119 — Polisario Front Terrorist Designation Act

This section states congressional findings on the Polisario Front, including (1) its founding in 1973 as a separatist group seeking Western Sahara's independence from Morocco; (2) ideological and operational ties to Iran dating to 1980; (3) training by three Hezbollah officers in Tindouf camps in 2018, one of whom orchestrated the 2007 Karbala raid killing five U.S. soldiers; (4) Iranian provision of lethal hardware, including armed drones as stated by a Polisario official in 2022 and confirmed in 2023 social media images; (5) Iranian training and unmanned aerial vehicles as reported by The Washington Post in April 2025; and (6) participation by the Syrian wing of the PKK, a designated terrorist organization, in a January 2025 Sahrawi Solidarity Summit.

This section directs the Secretary of State to submit to the appropriate congressional committees, not later than 180 days after enactment of this Act, a report on the Polisario Front that includes (1) a description of its leadership, military operations, and foreign sponsorship; (2) a description of its relationships, support, funding, and associations with Iran and Russia; (3) a description of its relationships, support, funding, and associations with foreign terrorist organizations Hezbollah, the IRGC, and the PKK; and (4) a description and analysis of whether it has ever intentionally attacked civilian targets.

This section directs the Secretary of State, not later than 90 days after enactment, to submit to the appropriate congressional committees a determination with detailed justification as to whether the Polisario Front meets the criteria for (1) designation as a foreign terrorist organization under INA §219 (8 U.S.C. 1189), which authorizes sanctions, material support prohibitions, and immigration restrictions; and (2) sanctions under §1263 of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (22 U.S.C. 2656 note), which targets serious human rights abuses and corruption. The section further directs the Secretary of the Treasury, not later than 90 days after enactment, to submit a similar determination as to whether the Polisario Front meets the criteria for sanctions under E.O. 13224 (50 U.S.C. 1701 note), which blocks property of terrorists and their supporters. The determinations must be submitted in unclassified form but may include a classified annex.

This section authorizes the President to waive the designations and sanctions required by section 4 if the Polisario Front is determined to be engaged in good faith negotiations to implement Morocco's 2007 autonomy plan for Western Sahara—submitted to the UN Security Council—which proposes granting the Sahrawi people a high degree of self-governance within Moroccan sovereignty.