United States Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz delivered a forceful address before the UN General Assembly, sharply criticizing what he described as decades of “wishful thinking” that have kept the Sahara conflict frozen for 50 years, while strongly endorsing Morocco’s Autonomy Proposal as the realistic path to peace.
Opening with a phrase drawn from his 27 years of military service, Waltz declared: “Hope is not a strategy for peace.”
He argued that the United Nations had for too long relied on the repeated hope that a referendum would somehow materialize and that renewing the same MINURSO mandate year after year would produce different results.
“It’s exactly that brand and mantra of broken promises repackaged as ‘hope’ that has kept this conflict frozen now for 50 years,” he said.
Waltz highlighted last year’s Security Council Resolution 2797 as a historic turning point that established Morocco’s Autonomy Proposal as the basis for negotiations.
Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States then moved to implement this approach, facilitating three rounds of high-level talks between Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Polisario.
Discussions covered self-government, political representation, resource sharing, demobilization, transition arrangements, security, and international guarantees, he said.
This year, the United States presented a draft resolution that would have extended MINURSO’s mandate for another 12 months while firmly establishing Morocco’s Autonomy Proposal as the basis for negotiations. The text received the support of 11 Security Council members but was vetoed by Russia on the final day of negotiations.
Waltz rejected Russia’s alternative draft, which Moscow described as a “technical rollover.”
“It wasn’t a rollover. It was a rollback,” he said, noting that the Russian text struck every reference to the Autonomy Proposal that the Council had endorsed only one year earlier and was supported by just three countries.
On the question of a referendum, Waltz recalled that successive UN Secretaries-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan, Personal Envoys James Baker and Peter van Walsum, former MINURSO chiefs, and other senior UN officials had all concluded that the original referendum framework was “impractical, and unworkable, and unachievable on the ground.”
He pointed out that MINURSO’s own website confirms the mission has not been preparing for a referendum for over two decades.
“Self-determination takes more than one form, and a referendum that can never be held serves no one,” he said.
“We will continue working with the parties, and with the United Nations, towards a lasting settlement,” he said.
Waltz welcomed Morocco’s commitment to the ceasefire, called on the Polisario to do the same, and supported UNHCR efforts to find durable solutions for the refugees.
