The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held on Monday closed consultations, under the presidency of Gabon, on the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) in the light of the report of the Secretary-General on the situation with regard to Western Sahara dated 3 October 2022.
The consultations were held in line with resolution 2602 (2021, paragraph 10) adopted by the Security Council on 29 October 2021 in which the Council requested the Secretary-General to brief the Council at regular intervals and to report on the situation with regard to Western Sahara before the end of the mandate period in sufficient time.
The Council heard a briefing by Mr. Staffan de Mistura, Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara, who submitted a presentation on the results of his second visit to the region and his meetings with the two parties, the Polisario Front and Morocco, and the two neighboring countries, Algeria and Mauritania, and other countries among members of the Security Council and outside it. Mr. Alexander Ivanko, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), also made a presentation on field developments in the Mission’s area of responsibility.
Before the Security Council consultations session, the President of the Republic and the Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Mr. Brahim Ghali, sent a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Antonio Guterres, including the Sahrawi position on several elements contained in the Secretary-General’s latest report.
The President of the Republic expressed once again the Sahrawi authorities’ deep condemnation of “the complicit and unjustified silence” of the United Nations Secretariat and its unjustified reluctance to call things by their true names and to hold the Moroccan occupation state accountable for the consequences of its documented violation of the 1991 cease-fire and the continuation of its aggressive action against the Sahrawi people.
He also recalled the decision of the Polisario Front of October 30, 2019 to reconsider its participation in the peace process as a whole and its affirmation that it would never accept or support any approach that deviates from the settlement plan accepted by the two parties or sought to bypass the legal nature of the recognized Western Sahara issue by the United Nations as a decolonization issue.
Brahim Ghali concluded his letter by affirming the commitment of the Frente POLISARIO to contribute to a peaceful, just and lasting solution to the decolonization of Western Sahara in accordance with the principles of international legality and relevant United Nations and African Union resolutions and on the basis of the mandate for which the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) was established.