On January 8, Ryanair launched its first-ever service to Western Sahara with Dakhla flights from the Spanish capital. Flightradar24 indicates that the first outbound service took 3h 6m.

Polisario Front’s Australian representative Kamal Fadel has urged Fortescue not to undermine United Nations decolonisation efforts by making a deal with the occupation government in Western Sahara.

He also said the United States would recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, a territory to Morocco’s south that the northwest African kingdom has controlled since the 1970s.