Borrell sobre el Sáhara: "España no va a ir contra una resolución de la ONU"

The European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, categorically rejected that the Spanish government's shift in its policy on Western Sahara contravenes the provisions of the United Nations.

"Spain is not going to go against a UN resolution. Nor will the European Union", Borrell assured Efe in an interview in the framework of the Doha Forum, before leaving for Kuwait on Sunday to hold meetings with the Kuwaiti authorities. 

According to Borrell, the European Union's position on the Western Sahara conflict "has not changed". We continue to say the same thing, that is, that the conflict must have a solution within the framework of the United Nations resolutions". 

"We support the UN special envoy (for Western Sahara, Staffan) De Mistura, and this solution must be found within the framework of an agreement between the parties", he added. 

On the new position of the Spanish government, which supports Morocco's proposal that Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, should be one of its regions, albeit with autonomy, he said it had to "continue to be found in an agreement between the parties".

Borrell said that although he was not the "spokesman" for the Spanish government on this issue, he had heard the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, "explain it in Parliament very clearly, saying that the Spanish position also continues to be within the framework of the United Nations, that the Spanish government has expressed its preference for one of the possible solutions, but that this solution had to continue to be found within the framework of an agreement between the parties".

The Western Sahara dispute began in 1975, when Morocco annexed the territory, taking advantage of a decolonisation process initiated by Spain and the fragility of Madrid in the aftermath of Francisco Franco's dictatorship. 

The Polisario Front unilaterally proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in the Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf (Algeria) and declared war on Morocco, demanding a referendum on self-determination that Rabat opposes.

The United Nations has passed numerous resolutions on the conflict since it began, the latest one in October, which calls for "a realistic, viable, lasting and mutually acceptable solution".