Morocco celebrates 51st anniversary of Western Sahara takeover as UN mission ends

LAAYOUNE, Western Sahara: Morocco on Friday commemorated the Green March, the 1975 mass mobilization into then-Spanish-controlled Western Sahara that helped pave the way for Morocco’s takeover of most of the disputed territory. The 51st anniversary came as the decades-old conflict enters a new diplomatic phase as a UN peacekeeping mission there winds down. In Laayoune, the largest city in the…