Hilale Slams UN Security Council Report for Biased Western Sahara Paragraph

Doha – Morocco’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, has formally challenged the UN Security Council over a biased paragraph concerning Morocco’s Western Sahara in its latest report to the General Assembly.

In a strongly-worded letter addressed to the Security Council’s president and members, Hilale expressed Morocco’s “profound surprise and firm rejection” of the singling out of “two parties” in the paragraph about the Sahara. The missive was sent following the Council’s adoption of its 2024 informative report to the General Assembly on May 30.

The Moroccan diplomat pointed out that the introduction to the Security Council’s report specifies in its final paragraph that the section’s purpose “is not to provide an exhaustive list of meetings, developments or Council responses,” but rather “a succinct and useful overview of the main developments throughout the year.”

Hilale blasted the contested paragraph for “flagrantly deviating” from this directive, which has guided the drafting of previous annual reports.

He charged that instead of faithfully reporting the Security Council’s position and sincere efforts toward a political, just, and sustainable solution to this regional dispute, it presents “a partisan and unbalanced reading” of positions expressed within the Council.

“This paragraph reflects only, in a selective and non-contextualized manner, the national position of the introduction’s writer and that of a non-permanent Security Council member,” Hilale declared, noting it “silences the contributions and positions expressed by other members,” thus “moving away from the consensus within this body.”

The ambassador firmly asserted that contrary to the paragraph’s claim, the Security Council has established four parties to the political process: Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania, and the separatist Polisario Front, citing them five times in all its resolutions since 2018.

Morocco’s representative stressed that no report from the Secretary-General nor any General Assembly resolution singles out two parties at the expense of the four stakeholders in the political process.

A futile attempt to derail the growing international momentum

He added that the writer’s biased approach is contradicted by the current international momentum, marked by widespread support for resolving this regional dispute solely on the basis of Morocco’s Autonomy Plan, respecting the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The Moroccan envoy continued that this serious and credible initiative enjoys strong and open support from 116 countries.

This includes two permanent Security Council members, with the United Kingdom joining just yesterday, as well as three non-permanent members who sat on the Council in 2024, and six among the current non-permanent members.

Hilale condemned how this approach “discredits the Security Council’s work vis-à-vis the General Assembly” by departing from the established practice of factuality and neutrality that traditionally characterizes Security Council reports to the General Assembly.

He warned it also “raises questions about the General Assembly’s confidence in the integrity of reports transmitted to it by the Security Council.”

“Instead of attempting to mislead the General Assembly by referring to his national position and that of a non-permanent Council member who is also a main party to this dispute, the writer of this section should have demonstrated neutrality and objectivity,” the diplomat thundered.

He further insisted that the writer should have informed the General Assembly about the constants and foundations of the political process established by the Security Council.

The Moroccan representative lambasted the writer for opposing the restoration of factuality in this section by invoking a supposed “procedural integrity,” which “cannot take precedence when such a flagrant inaccuracy is reported at any stage.”

Hilale went on to say that the report’s objectivity and factuality are “a political prerequisite to the Security Council’s mission as guarantor of the political process” for resolving the Sahara question.

For all these reasons, Morocco firmly denounces this failure to maintain the rigor, impartiality, and integrity of this section of the report.

The country also rejects the politically motivated distortion of this paragraph, which “can only be perceived as a vain attempt to undermine the international momentum in favor of the political process undertaken under the exclusive auspices of the United Nations.”

The letter has also been transmitted to the General Assembly president and the secretary-general, and will be published as an official document of both the Security Council and the General Assembly.