Rabat alaba la resolución sobre el Sáhara porque no cambia el formato de las negociaciones

Morocco welcomed today that the new Security Council resolution on Western Sahara has not changed the format of the UN-sponsored negotiations process.

The Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Naser Burita, assured that, despite the "maneuvers" of the Polisario Front and Algeria to change the format of the negotiations, the new resolution indicates that the round tables, in which all the parties participate, are the only mechanism to manage the political process.

"The round tables were cited four times in the resolution as the mechanism to be followed by the personal envoy (for the Sahara, Staffan de Mistura)," Burita specified.

The round tables refer to the new form of UN-sponsored rounds of contacts to find a solution to the conflict involving Morocco, Polisario, Algeria and Mauritania.

Burita also praised the fact that the Security Council has insisted on the need for a political and mutually acceptable solution to the conflict instead of reviving "old plans", referring to the holding of a referendum of self-determination which Morocco categorically rejects.

He also recalled that the resolution cites Algeria as one of the "real parties" to the conflict, so that the neighboring country bears as much responsibility for the political process as for the origin and persistence of the dispute".

The person in charge of the Sahara dossier in the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amar Belani, considered on 12 October last that the formula of the round tables "is no longer useful", because it is "instrumentalized" by Morocco to say that Algeria is a party to the Sahara conflict.

Earlier today, the Moroccan ambassador to the UN, Omar Hilale, threatened to abandon the negotiation process on the Sahara if Algeria does not participate in the next round of contacts which the Security Council entrusts to the new personal envoy for the Sahara, Staffan de Mistura.

The new Security Council resolution, which today extended the UN mission in the Sahara (Minurso) for a year, "encourages the parties" to take part in negotiations to find a solution to the conflict, something which seems difficult given that Algiers broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco last August.
 

Security Council extends mandate of UN mission in Sahara for another year

The UN Security Council today extended the UN mission in Western Sahara (Minurso) for another year, until October 31, 2022, in a text that was approved by a majority with two abstentions, those of Russia and Tunisia.

The text of the resolution adopted today, very similar to that of previous resolutions, emphasizes the need to find a "realistic, practicable, lasting and mutually acceptable" political solution, a tone closer to the postulates of Morocco, whose representative to the UN, Omar Hilale, today expressed his satisfaction with this resolution.

It also calls on the parties to "resume negotiations under the auspices of the Secretary General without preconditions and in good faith", something which seems difficult given that both Morocco and the Polisario Front start from irreconcilable assumptions: for Rabat, negotiations are only possible if its autonomy plan for the Sahara within Morocco is accepted; for the Polisario, only if there is a referendum of self-determination.

The resolution makes hardly any mention of the most serious event in the territory, the resumption of hostilities after thirty years of truce by the Polisario Front last November, and limits itself in one line to "noting with great concern the breaking of the cease-fire", without further comment.

As for the new Personal Envoy for the Sahara appointed by the Secretary General, it urges him to "resume the political process, building on the progress" of his predecessor, who succeeded in seating the parties to the conflict at two round tables between 2028 and 2019.

The text "encourages the parties" - and cites Morocco, Polisario, Algeria and Mauritania - to take part in these consultations, something which seems difficult given that Algiers broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco last August.