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Former German President to be appointed UN envoy to Western Sahara

Former German President Horst Kรถhler will be appointed UN envoy for Western Sahara, to relaunch talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front, according to a letter released on Friday.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres informed the Security Council of his decision to appoint Mr. Kรถhler last week, and no country has objected, which in effect validates his appointment.

An economist and former banker, Mr. Kรถhler presided over Germany from 2004 to 2010 after heading the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and chairing the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Mr Kรถhler, 74, will be the UN Secretary-General’s fourth personal envoy to Western Sahara, after the two Americans James Baker and Christopher Ross and the Dutchman Peter Van Walssun.

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His appointment comes, however, in a difficult context, characterized by the blocking of the UN process by Morocco which he should work to revive.

His predecessor, Christopher Ross, was categorically opposed to his request to travel to Rabat and the occupied Sahrawi territories to relaunch the peace talks in Western Sahara, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres , In his first report on Western Sahara presented last April to the Security Council.

Morocco had already scuttled the efforts of another US envoy in 2004 when it rejected the peace plan proposed by the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy James Baker, who maintained the principle of self-determination By requiring a referendum after five years of its implementation.

The role that Kรถhler should play is an important element in the peace process in Western Sahara, but will not be decisive without the support of the Security Council, according to several observers.

Before him, Mr. Ross was the object of a Franco-Moroccan sabotage operation in the Security Council and could not go far in his mission without the support of the UN body.

Included in the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories since 1963, Western Sahara is still awaiting the completion of the process of decolonization through the organization of a referendum on self-determination, in accordance with the cease-fire agreement signed in 1991 between Morocco and the Polisario Front.

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