Rabat – Prior to the United Nations-Secretary General final report on the Western Sahara conflict, Personal Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General, Horst Kohler is set to present to the first outcomes of the Western Sahara mediation process to the security council on Wednesday.
The meeting, which will be held in a closed session in New York, will feature briefings of the Western Sahara conflict. Kohler is set to present the security council with a written briefing on the meetings held with the parties to the conflict in recent months.
Kohler will be accompanied by the new head of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, Colin Stewart, reported Moroccan newspaper Al Ahdath Al Maghribia.
The meeting was previously scheduled for February at the request of the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres who requested to update the Security Council within six months of the appointment of the new Personal Envoy in accordance with resolution 2351, according to the UN.
The meeting will feature the progress Kohler has made in consultation with the parties to the issue, with the aim of implementing a mutually acceptable solution to end the four-decade long conflict.
The UN Security Council will take place after a series of meetings held between the Personal Envoy and delegations from Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and the separatist group. Kohler’s latest meeting was held with a Moroccan delegation, led by Morocco’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita, who reaffirmed Morocco’s firm stance on the Western Sahara question.
During their meeting, which took place in Lisbon on March 6, the Moroccan delegation presented Morocco’s efforts to implement a regional development model and structures of advanced regionalization.
Morocco’s Autonomy Plan was one of the key topics discussed by the UNSG Personal Envoy and the Moroccan delegation. Lisbon’s meeting served as part of Morocco’s permanent cooperation with the UN to find a fair solution to end the conflict over Western Sahara.
The UN chief is set to submit his final report on the Western Sahara conflict to the UN Security Council in April.
