Morocco World News
Morocco World News
New York, October 17, 2012
United Nations Secretary General’s Personal Envoy to the Sahara, Christopher Ross, is due to resume his mission and visit North Africa and Europe from October 27 to November 15, Martin Nesirky, the spokesperson of Bank Ki-moon said on Wednesday in New York.
The focus of Ross’s trip is to “exchange views with key interlocutors on how to accelerate progress toward the central objective set forth in successive Security Council resolutions, in other words, a mutually acceptable political solution “to the Sahara conflict. The UNSG Personal envoy is due to brief the Security Council following his trip.
In early May Morocco withdrew its confidence in Ross as UNSG personal envoy to the Sahara and called on Ban Ki-moon to appoint a new personal envoy in order to breathe a new life into the process of negotiations towards finding a long-lasting and mutually acceptable solution to the territorial dispute.
The decision was taken a few days after the publication of the UN Secretary General Annual report on the Sahara and the adoption by the Security on April 24 of a new resolution, which extended the mandate of MINURSO until 30 April 2013.
Morocco said that Ross’s report was ‘biased and unbalanced’, which undermined his ability to successfully lead the negotiation process, in addition to the fact that since he took over as UNSG personal envoy in early 2009 he ‘was unable’ of making the parties concerned engage in real negotiations to reach a solution.
