Rabat – The UN Security Council has reiterated that the final solution to the Western Sahara issue can only be achieved through round table process including Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and the Polisario Front.
The Security Council members made the announcement during a video conference briefing today, April 9.
The council’s decision is in accordance with resolution 2494, adopted on October 30, 2019, as well as its predecessors, resolutions 2414, 2440, and 2468, which have all called for negotiations between all the concerned parties to reach a political solution.
The parties have already met twice in December 2018 and March 2019 at a round table in Geneva, Switzerland. At the end of the second meeting, Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and the Polisario Front agreed to meet again in the same format.
The political solution should be realistic, pragmatic, lasting, and based on compromise, as set out by the Security Council in its last resolutions on the conflict.
The Moroccan Autonomy Plan meets all of the criteria, and the Security Council has deemed it as serious and credible since 2007. The autonomy plan suggests allowing the Moroccan southern regions in Western Sahara to auto-govern while remaining under Morocco’s sovereignty.
The recent decisions of the UN Security Council have caused outrage among Algerian state-owned media.
Algeria’s agitation confirms its status as a main party in the territorial dispute over Western Sahara. The North African country has long denied its involvement in the issue, despite its unabashed support for the Polisario Front.
The Security Council’s statement did not only upset Algeria but also angered the Polisario Front, which sought to make the Western Sahara conflict a focal point at the video conference meeting.
On April 6, the news agency of the self-styled SADR wrote that their “representative” at the UN, Sidi Mohamed Omar, would like the Security Council to discuss several issues related to Western Sahara, including the “delay in the appointment of a new UN envoy and mechanisms for responding to the opening of consulates” in Morocco’s southern regions.
Former UN Envoy to Western Sahara Horst Kohler resigned in May 2019 due to health problems. The UN Secretary-General is still searching for a replacement.
The Polisario Front and Algeria have continuously expressed frustration after several African countries decided to open diplomatic representations in Morocco’s Western Sahara territory.
Ten countries opened consulates in the region to date, and more countries will follow suit, according to the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita.
“The dynamic of opening diplomatic representations in Morocco’s southern provinces will continue at a sustained pace, despite the pressure,” said Bourita on February 28.
