UNGA Reaffirms Exclusivity of UN Political Process to Resolve Moroccan Sahara Issue

The United Nations General Assembly has just adopted a resolution reaffirming its support for the political process conducted under the exclusive auspices of the UN Security Council for the resolution of the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara, and reiterating the definitive burial of the referendum. The General Assembly thus confirmed the resolution adopted by the 4th committee last October. The resolution calls on all parties to cooperate fully with the UN Secretary General and his personal envoy to achieve a political solution to this regional dispute on the basis of the resolutions adopted by the Security Council since 2007. It thus supports the political process based on the 19 resolutions of the Security Council since 2007, with a view to reaching a “just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution” to the question of the Moroccan Sahara. The text highlights the efforts made in this regard and invites all parties to cooperate fully with the Secretary-General, and with each other, to achieve a “mutually acceptable political solution”. This resolution, like its predecessors and those adopted by the Security Council for more than two decades, does not mention any referendum, dead and buried by the UN Secretary-General, the UN General Assembly and the UN Security Council. The United Nations General Assembly also welcomes in this resolution the commitment of the parties to continue to show political will and to work in an atmosphere conducive to dialogue, on the basis of the efforts deployed and the new developments since 2006, thus ensuring the implementation of the Security Council resolutions since 2007. It should be noted that the only new development in the political process since 2006 is the presentation by Morocco, on April 11, 2007, of the autonomy initiative. In this regard, the text supports the resolutions of the Security Council since 2007, which have consecrated the pre-eminence of the Autonomy Initiative presented by Morocco, hailed by the executive body and by the entire international community as the only serious and credible initiative for the definitive settlement of this regional dispute within the framework of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom. The resolution also supports the recommendations of Security Council resolutions 2440, 2468, 2494, 2548, 2602 and 2654, all enshrined in resolution 2703, adopted on October 30, 2023, which determine the parameters of the solution to the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara, that is a political, realistic, pragmatic, lasting and compromise-based solution. It should be recalled that resolutions 2440, 2468, 2494, 2548, 2602, 2654 and 2703 consecrated the round-table process as the sole framework of the political process and defined, once and for all, its four participants, namely Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the “polisario”. In fact, resolutions 2440, 2468, 2494, 2548, 2602, 2654 and 2703 establish Algeria, together with Morocco, as the main party in this regional dispute. Moreover, these Security Council resolutions welcome the measures and initiatives taken by Morocco for the promotion and protection of human rights in its southern provinces, and the role played by the Commissions of the National Human Rights Council in Laayoune and Dakhla, as well as Morocco’s interaction with the mechanisms of the UN Human Rights Council. They also reiterate the request of the UN executive body for the registration and census of the population in the Tindouf camps, and demand the deployment of necessary efforts to this end. This resolution of the General Assembly does not refer at all to a supposed imaginary war which Algeria and its puppet “Polisario” claim to exist in the Moroccan Sahara. Thus, after the Security Council, the General Assembly unmasks, in its turn, the lies and fabrications of Algeria and the “polisario” about the situation in the Moroccan Sahara, marked by calm, stability and development at all levels.