Morocco reiterated on Thursday its support for the resumption of the “political process” under the aegis of the United Nations to settle the conflict in Western Sahara, by receiving the new UN envoy for this disputed territory.
Staffan de Mistura was received by the head of Moroccan diplomacy Nasser Bourita in Rabat, the first stage of a regional tour that will also take him to Algeria.
Rabat reaffirmed its “attachment to the resumption of the political process conducted under the exclusive aegis of the UN to reach a political solution”, on the basis of an autonomy plan advocated by Rabat.
In a recent speech, the King of Morocco Mohammed VI had pleaded for a “peaceful settlement” of the conflict while affirming that “the + Marocity + of the Sahara will never be on the agenda of any negotiation”.
The question of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony considered a “non-autonomous territory” by the UN, has for decades pitted Morocco against the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, supported by Algiers.
Rabat, which controls nearly 80% of this vast desert territory with its rich subsoil and bordering waters full of fish, proposes an autonomy plan under its sovereignty.
The Polisario, for its part, is calling for the self-determination referendum under the aegis of the UN which had been planned when a ceasefire was signed in 1991 but never materialized.
For Rabat, the relaunch of negotiations, suspended since 2019, must be part of “round tables” bringing together Morocco, the Polisario but also Algeria and Mauritania.
Algiers is opposed to a resumption of talks in this form after those organized in Switzerland by the previous UN envoy, the former German president Horst Köhler, who resigned in mid-2019 for lack of having obtained significant results.
The regional tour of the UN envoy – the first since taking office in November – is taking place in a context of fierce rivalry between Rabat and Algiers. It began on Wednesday in the greatest discretion.
After the Moroccan stage, Mr. de Mistura must go Saturday and Sunday to Sahrawi refugee camps in Tindouf and Rabouni, in Algeria, then to Algiers before completing his mission in Mauritania in January 19.
According to his spokesman, the Italian-Swedish diplomat, former UN mediator in Syria, wishes “to hear the views of all parties concerned on how to move forward towards a constructive resumption of the political process on Western Sahara”.
