H.R. 4119

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4119 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 4119

To provide for the imposition of sanctions with respect to the 
Polisario Front, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

June 24, 2025

Mr. Wilson of South Carolina (for himself and Mr. Panetta) introduced 
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on the Judiciary, for a 
period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

A BILL

To provide for the imposition of sanctions with respect to the 
Polisario Front, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Polisario Front Terrorist 
Designation Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds the following:
(1) The Polisario Front, founded in 1973, is a separatist 
group operating primarily in Western Sahara and the Tindouf 
region of Algeria, seeking independence for Western Sahara from 
Moroccan sovereignty.
(2) The Polisario Front has a documented history of 
ideological and operational ties with Iran, a state sponsor of 
terrorism, dating back at least to 1980, when Polisario 
fighters publicly posed with portraits of Ayatollah Ruhollah 
Khomeini in a bid to attract revolutionary credibility and 
Iranian patronage.
(3) According to reporting by Jeune Afrique, 3 Hezbollah 
officers served as trainers in the Tindouf camps in 2018. One 
of the named trainers, since killed in a November 2023 Israeli 
airstrike in Syria, had previously been sanctioned by the 
United States for orchestrating the 2007 Karbala raid in Iraq 
that killed 5 American soldiers.
(4) Iran's support has reportedly advanced from training to 
the provision of lethal hardware. In a 2022 livestream, 
Polisario ``Interior Minister'' Omar Mansour stated that his 
fighters were training on ``assembling and operating armed 
drones''. A year later, images disseminated via Polisario-
controlled social media channels showed Iranian-type munitions, 
as confirmed by open-source weapons researchers.
(5) The Washington Post reported in April 2025 that Iran 
has trained Polisario Front fighters and provided them with 
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), deepening concerns about the 
group's growing capabilities and external sponsorship.
(6) The Syrian wing of the PKK, a designated terrorist 
organization, took part in the front's meeting called ``Sahrawi 
Solidarity Summit'' in the Sahrawi camps on January 4-7 2025.

SEC. 3. REPORT.

Not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this 
Act, the Secretary of State shall submit to the appropriate 
Congressional committees a report on the Polisario Front to include the 
following:
(1) A description of the Polisario Front's leadership, 
military operations, and foreign sponsorship.
(2) A description of the Polisario Front's relationships, 
support, funding, and associations with Iran and Russia.
(3) A description of the Polisario Front's relationships, 
support, funding and associations with Foreign Terrorist 
Organizations Hezbollah, the IRGC, and the PKK.
(4) A description and analysis of whether the Polisario 
Front has ever intentionally attacked civilian targets.

SEC. 4. DETERMINATIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS 
AGAINST THE POLISARIO FRONT.

(a) Determinations by the Secretary of State.--Not later than 90 
days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 
State shall submit to the appropriate Congressional committees a 
determination, including a detailed justification, of whether the 
Polisario Front meets the criteria for--
(1) designation as a foreign terrorist organization under 
section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 
1189); and
(2) imposition of sanctions under section 1263 of the 
Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (subtitle F of 
title XII of Public Law 114-328; 22 U.S.C. 2656 note).
(b) Determination by the Secretary of the Treasury.--Not later than 
90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of 
the Treasury shall submit to the appropriate Congressional committees a 
determination, including a detailed justification, of whether the 
Polisario Front meets the criteria for the imposition of sanctions 
under Executive Order 13224 (50 U.S.C. 1701).
(c) Form.--The determinations required by subsections (a) and (b) 
shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include a classified 
annex.

SEC. 5. WAIVER.

The designations and sanctions described in section (4) of this 
bill may be waived by the President if it is determined that the 
Polisario Front is engaged in good faith negotiations to implement the 
autonomy plan for the Western Sahara put forward by the Kingdom of 
Morocco and submitted to the UN Security Council in 2007, which 
proposes granting the Sahrawi people a high degree of self-governance 
within a framework of Moroccan sovereignty.
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