Rabat – Colin Stewart, the head of the MINURSO, the peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara, will attend today a consultation meeting at the Security Council.
The UN Security Council’s Program of Work shows that the Security Council will convene today at 10:00 a.m, New York time. The meeting will feature consultations with the MINURSO chief.
The meeting comes amid escalations due to Polisario’s breaching of the ceasefire agreement it signed with Morocco under UN auspices in 1991.
The Polisario Front announced the collapse of the ceasefire in November 2020, when Morocco peacefully intervened to restore civil and commercial traffic in Guerguerat, near the Moroccan-Mauritania border.
Morocco’s action came to stop illegal protests from Polisario militias, which had been obstructing commercial traffic for three weeks.
Since Morocco’s action, Polisario decided to “wage a war,” publishing hundreds of press releases on alleged attacks against Morocco’s military.
Recently, pro-Polisario news outlets have relentlessly covered stories about the death of senior Polisario officers.
Reports claimed that the Moroccan army killed the Polisario members in a counteroffensive after the separatist group attempted to attack Morocco’s sand wall.
Through its war and security threats in the region, Polisario publicly announced its unwillingness to engage in the UN-led political process.
Read also: Western Sahara: Morocco Condemns Algeria’s Obstruction of UN Process
Polisario’s war statement is also in defiance of UN resolutions and reports, with the organization having called on all parties to show restraint and avoid any escalation that seeks to undermine the political process in the region.
Polisario’s decision to refuse candidates for replacing former special envoy for Western Sahara, Horst Kohler, is also a sign that the separatist group seeks escalation in the region.
Morocco’s permanent ambassador to the UN addressed a letter to the UN Security Council ahead of the consultation scheduled for today, informing it about Polisario’s and its supporters’ obstruction of the UN political process.
Hilale accused both Polisario and Algeria of blocking the UN process by violating the recommendations of both UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ report and Security Council resolutions.
He reaffirmed Morocco’s positive commitment to the process, saying that the North African country recently approved Gueterres’ proposal of two candidates as a potential replacement of Horst Kohler, the former UN Western Sahara envoy who resigned in May 2019.
The proposals were Romanian Prime Minister Petre Roman and the former Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado, both of which Polisario rejected.
“Morocco confirms once more its commitment to supporting the exclusive efforts of the UN to resolve this dispute, as well as its respect for the resolutions of the Security Council,” he said.
In addition, Morocco also intensified consultations with international partners on the dossier, reaffirming its willingness to consolidate such cooperation within the UN-led process.
Ahead of the MINURSO consultations, Morocco’s Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita held talks with several FMs from different governments as part of the permanent consultations between Morocco and its partners.
The latest such discussion took place today between the Moroccan FM and his counterpart from Indonesia Retno Marsudi.
On Tuesday, Morocco’s foreign minister also held consultations with his Irish counterpart Simon Coveney.
During the meeting, both parties reaffirmed their interest in advancing their consultations within “multilateral and international forums, particularly within the United Nations,” the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
