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Rabat – France welcomed the appointment of the former German president Horst Köhler as a Personal Envoy of the United Nations Secretary General for Western Sahara.
Köhler was officially appointed as the new envoy on Wednesday. Paris responded to his appointment in the same day through a statement published on the website of its Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Paris said it wished Köhler “every success” and expressed gratitude to his predecessor, the American diplomat Christopher Ross, “for his positive contribution to the search for a peaceful solution to the situation.”
Ross’ role as Western Sahara Envoy was contested by Morocco, which accused him of bias towards the Polisario Front and Algeria.
Ross had been the United States’ ambassador to Algeria between 1988 and 1991.
As a result, the 74-year-old diplomat submitted his resignation in March after serving as the UN Envoy for eight years, even though Morocco had announced as early as 2012 that it no longer had confidence in him.
France remains a key international player in the Western Sahara issue, as both a major diplomatic ally of Morocco and one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
