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Rabat- The Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara Horst Köhler met Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita on Wednesday and will meet Head of Government Saad Eddine El Othmani on Thursday.
During his visit to Rabat, Köhler will hold talks with El Othmani in Rabat before heading to Dakhla and Smara in Western Sahara to examine socio-economic development in the region.
Köhler will also visit MINURSO headquarters in Laayoune to monitor the ceasefire agreement, violated by the Polisario front in recent months.
Bourita received Köhler on Wednesday, when they held a meeting regarding the Sahara issue, addressing Morocco’s autonomy plan to find a fair solution for the conflict.
Köhler’s visit to Morocco’s capital city is a part of his 10-day tour to Western Sahara, June 23-July 1.
His Western Sahara tour is to deepen his “understanding of the reality on the ground, and discuss how to move forward in the UN-led political process, in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2414,” according to UN Spokesman Farhan Haq.
The resolution extended the mandate of MINURSO’s mission until October 31, 2018, and called for a “realistic, practicable and enduring” political solution.
It also urged Algeria to contribute to finding a solution for the four-decade-long conflict over Western Sahara.
Köhler has visited Mauritania and southern Algeria where he met Polisario representatives in the Tindouf camps.
The Polisario Front carried out a parade on May 20 east of Morocco’s defense wall to celebrate the “45th anniversary of its armed struggle,” symbolizing a violation of the resolution just a few weeks after its adoption.
Morocco strongly condemned the destabilizing maneuver, which once more defied the 1991 ceasefire agreement between Morocco and Polisario and Resolution 2414.
