Sahara: UN Security Council starts closed-door briefings & consultations
The UN Security Council holds this Wednesday in New York a closed-door meeting on the MINURSO, whose mandate expires on October 31. Ahead of the mandate renewal, Council members will be briefed by Head of MINURSO Alexander Ivanko on the UN Mission activities, the situation on the ground and Polisario provocations.
Ivanko’s briefing comes following the draft report submitted to the Security Council by UN Chief Antonio Guterres on the Sahara. On October 16, UN Sahara Envoy Staffan De Mistura is expected to brief the Council on his efforts to advance the UN-led political process for the resolution of the Sahara regional conflict.
Last September 4, De Mistura embarked on a regional tour with a visit to the Moroccan Sahara cities of Laayoune and Dakhla where he held a series of meetings with elected officials, Chioukhs, local notables and economic stakeholders. He also met with representatives of civil society, young people, and women.
The trip has enabled the UN Sahara envoy to see the tangible economic and social progress as well as the local democratic governance and inclusive development prevailing in the Sahara provinces.
On September 8, De Mistura met Morocco’s foreign minister Nasser Bourita in Rabat. During the meeting, Bourita underlined the constants of Morocco’s position, as reaffirmed by King Mohammed VI in the speech he delivered on November 6, 2022 on the Green March celebration, advocating “a political solution, based exclusively on the Moroccan Autonomy Initiative, within the frame of the Kingdom’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary General for the Sahara also met separately with Algerian foreign minister Ahmed Attaf, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El-Ghazouani and polisario chief Brahim Ghali.
De Mistura’s regional tour aimed at re-launching the roundtable political process with the participation of Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the polisario, in line with UN Security Council resolutions, notably resolution 2654, adopted on October 27, 2022.
Prior to De Mistura’s trip, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary Josh Harris visited Morocco and Algeria to “reaffirm full U.S. support for the UN political process for Sahara.”
The U.S. official urged Algeria and the Polisario to support the UN Sahara envoy in a spirit of realism and compromise to achieve an enduring political solution to the Sahara issue.
