Greater Mauritania

The term was initially used by Mauritania's first President, Mokhtar Ould Daddah, as he began claiming the territory then known as Spanish Sahara even before Mauritanian independence in 1960.

In 1957, the future first President of Mauritania, Mokhtar Ould Daddah, stated that: The basis for his claim was the close ethnic and cultural ties between the Mauritanians and the Sahrawis of Spanish Sahara, which in effect formed two subsets of the same tribal Arab-Berber population.

[9] That, however, did not take into account an Advisory Opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which had decided in late 1975 that the people of Western Sahara had a right to self-determination to be exercised freely in the form of a choice between integration with one or both of Mauritania and Morocco, or setting up an independent state.

[11] The country evacuated and left Tiris al-Gharbiyya the following year (1979), renouncing all claims to any part of Western Sahara, and recognizing the Polisario Front as its people's legitimate representative.

Relations with Rabat deteriorated rapidly, and amid allegations of Moroccan backing for attempted coups and minor armed clashes, Mauritania drew closer to Algeria and the Polisario.

While still recognizing the Sahrawi Republic, Mauritania has largely mended relations with Morocco and now generally seeks to stay out of the Western Sahara dispute, which remains unresolved.