Rabat – The UN Security Council held closed consultations on the Western Sahara conflict on Monday.
During the meeting, members of the Security Council received a briefing from the UN Secretary General’s Personal Envoy for the Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for the Sahara and the head of the peacekeeping mission MINURSO, Alexander Ivanko, Moroccan news agency MAP quoted diplomatic sources as indicating.
According to the sources, de Mistura also recalled his regional visit to Morocco’s southern provinces and Rabat, as well as in Algeria.
Many Security Council members commended Morocco’s significant efforts contributing to the development of its southern provinces, the sources added.
Meanwhile, several countries reiterated their support and appreciation for Morocco’s efforts to advance the UN-led political process, including its Autonomy Plan that has been widely hailed as the most serious and credible route to a political solution to the decades-old Sahara dispute.
Today’s consultations come just a few weeks ahead of the holding of the Security Council vote on a new resolution to extend the mandate of MINURSO.
The consultations also come in the wake of the UN Secretary-General’s annual report on the Sahara, in which the UN chief detailed Algeria’s reluctance to shoulder its responsibility in the Sahara dispute and its refusal to commit to the UN-led political process.
Notably, paragraph 32 of the UN report stressed that Algeria has “continued to object the roundtable format, contending that in that in 2018-2019 its participation has been ‘instrumentalized.’”
The statement demonstrates Algeria’s continued refusal to comply with international law and UN Resolutions, including last year’s Resolution 2654.
Like all UN resolutions since Morocco presented its Autonomy Plan in 2007, Resolution 2654 called on all parties to engage in the UN-led political process and to support
UN Personal Envoy Staffan de Mistura and his efforts to find a compromise-based political solution to the Western Sahara dispute.
