UN: Security Council Holds Closed-door Consultations on Moroccan Sahara Issue

The UN Security Council held, Wednesday in New York, closed-door consultations on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara. According to diplomatic sources in New York, Security Council members were briefed by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Sahara, Alexander Ivanko, as well as the Under-Secretary-General for Africa in the UN Secretariat’s Department of Political Affairs, Martha Pobee. These consultations come in anticipation of the adoption, at the end of October, of a resolution extending the mandate of Minurso, for which the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres has recommended a duration of one year. Guterres has recently appointed the Italian-Swedish Staffan de Mistura as his new personal envoy for the Moroccan Sahara. The appointment of de Mistura, who is expected to begin his mandate in early November, came after the endorsement of the Security Council, which was officially seized by the UN Secretary General. Morocco had expressed its support for the appointment after being consulted by the UN Secretary-General several weeks ago, as did the other parties. In the letter of appointment addressed to the Security Council, the UN Secretary General had indicated that de Mistura will work with Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the “polisario” on the basis of resolution 2548 of October 30, 2021 and other resolutions of the Council, as well as taking fully into account the progress made so far, in order to achieve the political solution of the question of the Moroccan Sahara. These Security Council resolutions, mentioned in the Secretary-General’s report, namely 2440, 2468, 2494 and 2548, reaffirmed that a political, realistic, pragmatic and compromise solution is the only way out of the Moroccan Sahara issue.