The United Nations is bringing its 35-year peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara to a close after the Security Council failed to renew its mandate, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Sunday.
The mission, known as MINURSO, has been in place since a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991. In addition to monitoring that ceasefire, it was supposed to organise a referendum on the territory’s future. That vote never took place, because the parties could not agree on who would be eligible to take part.
November 1 marked the start of the mission’s liquidation phase, during which its assets are being transported back to the countries that contributed troops.
Morocco, which claims Western Sahara as its own territory, welcomed the decision. The Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which has sought an independent state since Spain, the former colonial power, left in 1976, expressed concern.
The end of the mission comes a year after the Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution accepting Rabat’s plan for autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty as the “most feasible” solution. Russia, which abstained in last year’s vote, this year vetoed another US-backed resolution that would have cemented the UN’s preference for the Moroccan plan while scaling back the force. The Council then defeated a competing Russian resolution, leaving the mission to expire without a new mandate.
Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told state media that the mission’s referendum reference was an “anachronism”. Morocco’s royal palace called the non-renewal a significant development, while Algeria’s Foreign Ministry expressed deep regret, blaming what it called excessive US bias towards Morocco’s position.
Source: Reuters
