Sahara: UN Chief Report Reaffirms Burial of Referendum

In his report to the Security Council on the Moroccan Sahara, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, reaffirms once again that the political solution, under the United Nations auspices and within the exclusive framework of the UN Council resolutions, is the only way to settle this regional dispute. Mr. Guterres expresses, in this regard, his confidence that a solution will remain possible to the Moroccan Sahara issue “in accordance with Security Council resolutions 2440, 2468, 2494 and 2548”. These resolutions call for a political, realistic, pragmatic, lasting and compromise solution to the Moroccan Sahara issue. These resolutions also enshrine the round table process with the participation of Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Polisario, as the sole framework to lead the UN political process. By fixing the scope of the process and the political solution only to the UN Security Council resolutions 2440, 2468, 2494 and 2548, the Secretary-General has once again confirmed the final burying of obsolete plans and proposals and their outdated mechanism, in other words the referendum, to which the other parties are attached, and which have been ruled out by the Security Council and the Secretary-General for more than two decades ago. In addition, these resolutions, like all those adopted by the Security Council since 2007, have enshrined the Autonomy Initiative as the only serious and credible solution to the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara. Once again, the UN Secretary General contradicts the outdated and sterile theses of Algeria and the Polisario. The time has come for the resumption of the political process which he deems as “more urgent than ever”. Mr. Guterres urges, in this context, the Polisario to immediately cease its violations of the ceasefire and military agreements as well as its obstructions to MINURSO.