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Join on Telegram Rabat – UN Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, is expected to visit Algeria and Mauritania as part of a second regional tour aimed at reviving the UN-led political process to find a lasting solution to the Sahara dispute.
Africa Intelligence reported on August 18 that the envoy is expected to visit the two countries between September and October.
The scheduled visits are part of de Mistura’s mission to intensify dialogue with the parties to the Sahara dispute to pave the way for potential round-table discussions as part of the UN-led political process to broker a mutually acceptable and agreed upon political solution to end the decades-long dispute over Western Sahara.
Moroccan newspaper Al Ahdath Al Maghribia has also reported on the potential visit, saying that de Mistura’s tour program includes meetings with Algerian officials and a trip to the Polisario-run Tindouf camps.
Staffan de Mistura’s reported visit will follow his working meeting with a high-level Moroccan delegation in July in Rabat.
Last month, de Mistura met with Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita, and Ambassador Omar Hilal, Morocco’s Permanent Representative to the UN.
During the meeting, the Moroccan officials recalled Rabat’s position on the Sahara dispute as well as the centrality of the Moroccan Autonomy Plan as the only basis to end the dispute.
They also reassured de Mistura of Morocco’s commitment to take part in UN-led roundtable talks in accordance with the UN Security Council’s resolutions on Western Sahara.
Resolution 2602, the latest Security Council resolution on the Sahara dispute, called for a realistic, pragmatic, lasting, and compromise-based political solution.
July’s visit was not the first of its kind for de Mistura. The UN envoy had visited Morocco during his first regional tour in January, when he also held talks with Algerian and Mauritania authorities.
A Complex Task
During that first tour, de Mistura traveled to the Tindouf camps where he met with the leadership of the Polisario Front, the separatist group seeking independence in the southern Moroccan region.
As he prepares for yet another tour to lay the groundwork for possible round-table talks between Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, and the Polisario Front, de Mistura continues to face a complex task amid recent regional developments.
Algeria, which has long shirked its historical responsibility and ongoing involvement in the territorial dispute, has dismissed the latest UN resolution, cut off diplomatic ties with Morocco, and signaled its readiness to shun any mediation efforts aimed at convening Algerian and Moroccan diplomats around the same table.
Meanwhile, Morocco has long emphasized the depth of Algeria’s role in the Sahara dispute and argued that there can be no genuine peace talks without Algeria’s participation as a full-fledged party.
Morocco considers Algeria as the main party to the regional dispute as it hosts, arms, and finances the Polisario Front.
De Mistura’s reported visit also comes after King Mohammed VI reaffirmed the centrality of Western Sahara for Morocco.
In a speech on Saturday, the King emphasized the importance of the growing international support for Rabat’s sovereignty over the disputed region in southern Morocco.
The King named many countries that have expressed support for Morocco’s stance, noting the US recognition and the increasing acknowledgment of the Moroccan Autonomy Plan as the most serious and credible framework to end the Sahara dispute.
Most importantly, he called on all of Morocco’s traditional and new partners to make their position on the Sahara dispute clear.
“With these positive developments in mind – which concern states from all continents – I would like to send out a clear message to everyone: the Sahara issue is the lens through which Morocco looks at the world,” the monarch said. “It is the clear, simple benchmark whereby my country measures the sincerity of friendships and the efficiency of partnerships.”
