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 anniversary comes as the decades-old conflict enters a new diplomatic phase as a U.N. peacekeeping mission there winds down.

In Laayoune, the largest city in the part of Western Sahara controlled by Morocco, signs of the Green March anniversary were visible across public spaces.