Morocco World News with agencies
Morocco World News with agencies
UNITED NATIONS, May 18, 2012
UN envoy to the Sahara, Christopher Ross, has cancelled his plans to carry out his first official trip to the Sahara, the UN said Friday after Morocco said on Thursday that it no longer has confidence in Ross’s role a UNSG’s personal envoy to the region.
“There are no plans for Mr Ross to travel to the region at this time,” a UN spokesman, Farhan Haq, was quoted by AFP as saying. Following the ninth round of the fruitless UN-brokered informal talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front guerrillas last March, Ross announced that he would go to the region, including the Sahara, in mid-May.
The Moroccan government said in a statement on Thursday that the veteran US diplomat’s work in the Western Sahara was “unbalanced and biased.”
“Morocco has decided to withdraw its confidence in the personal envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Sahara, Christopher Ross, and asked for redressing the process meant to resolve this issue,” Mustapha el Khalfi, Minister of Communication and governments spokesperson said in a statement.
