Security Council meeting on Western Sahara: Diplomatic slap for Morocco!
BY: Hana Saada
ALGIERS- The UN Security Council held closed-door consultations on Wednesday, under the presidency of the Russian Federation, on the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). During the meeting, Morocco expansionist ambitions fell apart. There was indeed no question of its stillborn autonomy plan, said the French-language news website La Patrie News, quoting reliable sources close to the Sahrawi dossier.
In this vein, the Security Council insisted on the imperative to return to the negotiating table, without preconditions, in accordance with international law and legality.
This is the second diplomatic slap administered to Morocco. Indeed, the two parties to the conflict are none other than Morocco, the occupying force, and the Polisario front. Algeria is in no way concerned by this question of decolonization. Its support for the Polisario front is linked to its intimate and historical convictions, advocating the right of peoples to self-determination.
The Security Council, which announced a very probable return to the bilateral negotiation table, far from the formula of round tables, hopes that this initiative would take place before the expiry of the mandate of MINURSO, slated for October 31, 2023.
This is not all, the Security Council still insists on the need to reach a solution in accordance with the international law, which “respects the right of the Saharawi people to hold a referendum on self-determination”.
Noting that the consultations were held in line with resolution 2654 (2022) adopted by the Security Council on 27 October 2022, in which the Council requested the Secretary-General to provide briefings to the Council at regular intervals, as well as at any time he deems appropriate during the mandate of the mission, including within six months of renewal.
The Council listened to briefing presented by Mr. Staffan de Mistura, the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara, on the informal bilateral consultations he held last month in New York with the parties to the conflict, the Polisario Front and Morocco, and the two neighboring countries, Algeria and Mauritania, as well as members of the “Group of Western Sahara Friends”.
The official spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations indicated, on the occasion, that the personal envoy of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara still hopes for the possibility of reaching a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution that guarantees self-determination for the people of Western Sahara in accordance with the relevant Security Council resolutions.
Mr. Alexander Ivanko, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), also gave a presentation on field developments in the Mission’s area of responsibility.
The Polisario Front has recently reaffirmed its full cooperation with the efforts of the United Nations and the African Union to complete the decolonization of Western Sahara, while also reaffirming its firm attachment to the main goal that embodies the will of all Sahrawis, which is to enable the Sahrawi people to exercise its inalienable right to self-determination and independence in accordance with the principles of international law and the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and the African Union.
