Abdelaziz was born in Marrakesh, Morocco or in Smara, Spanish Sahara comes from a Sahrawi family of an eastern Reguibat subtribe, migrating between Western Sahara, Mauritania, western Algeria and southern Morocco. He is the son of "Khlili Ben Mohamed Al-Bachir Rguibi"; who was a member of the Moroccan Liberation Army and the Royal Moroccan Army. Abdelaziz's father lives in Morocco with a part of his family and has always supported Moroccan claims on Western Sahara and is a member of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs. When Abdelaziz was asked during an interview about his father's position he said: "Everybody has the right to have his own opinions"
As a student in the Mohammed V University of Rabat, he gravitated towards Sahrawi nationalism, and became one of the founding members of the Polisario Front, a Sahrawi independence movement in Western Sahara with strong Arab socialist ideas which launched a few attacks against Spanish colonialism in the Spanish Sahara in 1973; but that is more notable for fighting against Mauritania and Morocco.
He is considered a secular nationalist and has steered the Polisario and the Sahrawi republic towards political compromise, notably in backing the United Nations' Baker Plan in 2003. Under his leadership, Polisario also abandoned its early Arab socialist orientation, in favor of a Western Sahara organized along liberal democratic lines[citation needed]. He is, however, the 3rd longest ruling non-royal leader as he has been president of Sahrawi Republic for nearly 35 years. He has consistently sought backing from Western states, notably the European Union (especially Spain) and the United States of America, but so far with little success.
The Organization of African Unity seated Western Sahara for the first time in 1982, despite Morocco's vehement objections. In 1985, Abdelaziz was elected as Vice-President of the OAU at its 21st summit, effectively signalling that the Sahrawi Repbulic would be a permanent OAU member despite the controversy. In 2002, he was elected as vice-president of the African Union, at its first summit.
There is some criticism against him from within the Polisario for preventing reforms inside the movement[citation needed], and for insisting on a diplomatic course that has so far gained few concessions from Morocco, rather than re-launching the armed struggle favored by many within the movement. The only, supposedly opposition group, is the Front Polisario Khat al-Shahid, which states that it wants to restore the legacy of his predecessor, El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed. Abdelaziz, specifically denied the existence of such a group; he maintains that only the Polisario exists in the camps. Others consider that, despite his militant rhetoric, Abdelaziz cannot order a resumption of fighting without the approval of the Algerian government.
Abdelaziz has condemned terrorism, insisting the Polisario's guerrilla war is to be a "clean struggle" (that is, not targeting private citizens' safety or property); he however acknowledged mistreatment to Moroccan prisoners of war as well as attacking civilian populations in Moroccan cities by the polisario, justifying this as necessary evils in times of war and that the Polisario had to use every mean in order to defend the Sahrawi population from the enemy.
He sent formal condolences to the afflicted governments after the terrorist attacks in New York City, Madrid, London, Kampala
Also, as head of the SADR, he has signed the OAU Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism at the 36th summit in Algiers, July 14, 1999, the Dakar Declaration against Terrorism in October 2001 & the additional Protocol to the previous OAU's Convention on Terrorism at the 3rd session of the Assembly of the African Union in Addis Ababa, July 8, 2004.
In 2001, he was reportedly nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
In December 2005, as leader of the Polisario Front, he received the Human Rights International Prize, given by the Spanish Pro-Human Rights Association.
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