UN Safety Council backs Moroccan plan for disputed Western Sahara

[ad_1] The UN Safety Council on Friday authorized a US-sponsored decision backing Morocco’s declare to the disputed Western Sahara, a shift that aligns with the Trump administration's assist for the North African nation.

"Real autonomy below Moroccan sovereignty may represent a most possible resolution," the decision stated.

Though the vote was divided, the decision presents the strongest endorsement but for Morocco’s plan to maintain sovereignty over the mineral-rich territory, which additionally has backing from most European Union members and a rising variety of African allies.

“The USA welcomes as we speak’s historic vote, which seizes upon this distinctive second and builds on the momentum for an extended, lengthy overdue peace in Western Sahara,” Mike Waltz, US ambassador to the UN, stated in his remarks after the vote.

The decision refers to Morocco’s plan as a foundation for negotiation. As with related resolutions in earlier years, the textual content makes no point out of a referendum on self-determination that features independence as an choice, which is the answer lengthy favoured by the pro-independence Polisario Entrance and its allies, together with Algeria, Russia and China.

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In a uncommon speech broadcast on Moroccan tv after the vote, King Mohammed VI celebrated the outcome and pledged to complement Morocco’s proposal with further particulars. He additionally known as for dialogue with Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

The US led 11 international locations in voting in favour, whereas three international locations – Russia, China and Pakistan – abstained. Algeria, Polisario’s major benefactor, didn't vote.

Sidi Mohamed Omar, the Polisaro ambassador to the UN, thanked the allies who abstained and Algeria for protesting the vote, saying this “made it very clear that as we speak’s decision doesn't suggest any recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara”.

“In different phrases, and in plain English, it doesn't suggest recognition of Morocco’s unlawful navy occupation of Western Sahara,” he added.

Western Sahara is a phosphate-rich stretch of coastal desert the dimensions of Colorado that was below Spanish rule till 1975. It's claimed by each Morocco and the Polisario Entrance, which operates out of refugee camps in southwestern Algeria and claims to characterize the Sahrawi individuals indigenous to the disputed territory.

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02:16 Amar Bendjama, the Algerian ambassador to the UN, stated that whereas the decision was an enchancment on earlier iterations, it “nonetheless has various shortcomings”, arguing that the textual content "doesn't faithfully or sufficiently replicate the UN doctrine on decolonisation".

The measure additionally renews the UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara for one more yr, as has been completed for greater than three a long time. Prior extensions, nonetheless, haven’t included a reference to Morocco and its allies’ most popular end result.

The vote got here weeks after US President Donald Trump's particular envoy Steve Witkoff jolted the area by suggesting on CBS’s “60 Minutes” that peace between Morocco and Algeria could possibly be reached inside 60 days. The neighbouring international locations have not had diplomatic relations for 4 years.

Massad Boulos, Trump’s senior adviser for African affairs, reiterated US assist for Morocco’s plan in an interview with Sky Information Arabia this week.

The UN decision calls on all events concerned to “seize this unprecedented alternative for a long-lasting peace”. Relying on progress, it asks Secretary Normal Antonio Guterres to evaluation the peacekeeping mission’s mandate inside six months.

The shift may unsettle a long-stalled course of that for many years has eluded decision, regardless of a UN peacekeeping mission designed to be non permanent. Demonstrations have ensued in Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria this week, the place individuals have vowed not to surrender their struggle for self-determination.

Morocco controls practically all of Western Sahara, aside from a slim strip often known as the “free zone” that lies east of a Moroccan-built sand wall.

A 1991 ceasefire was meant to pave the best way for a referendum on self-determination, however combating over voter eligibility prevented it from happening.

Mass funding adjustments face of Dakhla, in Morocco-controlled Western Sahara

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<img fetchpriority="low" src="https://s.france24.com/media/display/6ae34eae-8cc2-11f0-96c9-005056bf30b7/w:1280/p:16x9/EN-NW-OOV-ECRAN-WESTERN-SAHARA-DEVELOP-FREEZE-BAIN-Lauren.jpg" srcset="https://s.france24.com/media/display/6ae34eae-8cc2-11f0-96c9-005056bf30b7/w:388/p:16x9/EN-NW-OOV-ECRAN-WESTERN-SAHARA-DEVELOP-FREEZE-BAIN-Lauren.jpg 388w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/6ae34eae-8cc2-11f0-96c9-005056bf30b7/w:720/p:16x9/EN-NW-OOV-ECRAN-WESTERN-SAHARA-DEVELOP-FREEZE-BAIN-Lauren.jpg 720w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/6ae34eae-8cc2-11f0-96c9-005056bf30b7/w:1024/p:16x9/EN-NW-OOV-ECRAN-WESTERN-SAHARA-DEVELOP-FREEZE-BAIN-Lauren.jpg 1024w,https://s.france24.com/media/display/6ae34eae-8cc2-11f0-96c9-005056bf30b7/w:1280/p:16x9/EN-NW-OOV-ECRAN-WESTERN-SAHARA-DEVELOP-FREEZE-BAIN-Lauren.jpg 1280w" sizes="(max-width: 639px) calc(100vw - 32px), (max-width: 1076px) calc(100vw - 44px), 850px" width="1280" height="720" alt="FOCUS" loading="lazy" class="a-img "/> FOCUS © FRANCE 24 Over time, Morocco has reworked the disputed territory, developing a deepwater port and a 1,055-kilometre freeway. State subsidies preserve meals and vitality costs low, and the inhabitants has ballooned as Moroccans settle in cities resembling Dakhla and Laayoune.

Polisario withdrew from the ceasefire in 2020 after clashes close to a street Morocco was paving to Mauritania.

The group has since repeatedly reported navy exercise, whereas Morocco has principally denied open battle. The United Nations calls it “low-level hostilities”.

Final October, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura recommended partitioning Western Sahara, a proposal neither facet accepted. He urged Morocco to make clear what autonomy would entail and warned a scarcity of progress would possibly elevate questions concerning the United Nations' function and “whether or not there's area and willingness for us to nonetheless be helpful”.