Sahara Issue: Support to Morocco’s Autonomy Plan Widely Echoed at UN Security Council

Support for Morocco’s autonomy plan in the Sahara, presented by the Kingdom in April 2007 to achieve a final settlement of the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara, was widely echoed during the closed-door UN Security Council meeting held on Wednesday. According to well-informed UN diplomatic sources, the autonomy plan was widely supported by several members of the Security Council, which considered the Moroccan initiative as a serious and credible basis for ending the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara, as enshrined in UNSC resolutions since 2007. Similarly, the recent historic support of Spain and Germany for the autonomy initiative was widely echoed during the Council’s consultations. During this meeting, Security Council members were briefed by the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for the Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, on his first tour in the region, as well as by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of MINURSO, Alexander Ivanko, who spoke via video-conference. According to the same diplomatic sources, the members of the Security Council have strongly and unanimously supported the UN political process to achieve a political, realistic, pragmatic, sustainable and compromise-based solution to the Moroccan Sahara issue, based exclusively on the resolutions of the Security Council since 2007, particularly Resolution 2602, adopted last October. In this regard, they reaffirmed their support to the efforts of the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy to relaunch the UN political process. A strong and frank call was made for the resumption, as soon as possible, of the round-table process, which Algeria continues to oppose, in an additional challenge to the international community. In Resolution 2602, the UN Security Council mentioned Algeria five times and urged it to remain committed to the round-table process in a spirit of realism and compromise, in order to achieve a successful outcome, thus establishing Algeria as the main party to this regional dispute. The members of the Council also welcomed Morocco’s full cooperation with the MINURSO. This includes the Kingdom’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign which covered the UN mission’s members. At this meeting, the members of the Security Council expressed their utmost concern over the polisario’s renunciation of the ceasefire, its violations of military agreements and its obstruction of MINURSO’s activities and the movement freedom of its military observers. They also enjoined the polisario to respect the cease-fire, to refrain from any act of provocation, and to stop its dangerous obstruction of MINURSO’s cease-fire supervision mandate, notably by blocking its patrols and preventing the supply of military observers, as detailed in the Secretary-General’s last report to the Security Council, released last October. According to the same sources, this meeting took place in a calm atmosphere, thus promoting the best conditions for the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy mandate, in accordance with Resolution 2602.