Morocco considers the veto on the resolution on MINURSO “positive step”

O king of Morocco, Mohammed VI, said today that the suspension of the renewal of the MINURSO mandate “is an important step forward and a significant step towards the final resolution of the Western Sahara issue.”.

The declaration follows the vetoes of Russia and the United States to their respective motions for resolutions on the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Western Sahara Referendum (MINURSO), in the vote held on Friday at the UN Security Council.

“ This mission served for a long time as an instrument to internationalise the regional dispute concerning the legitimate recovery of the Kingdom of Morocco from its Saharian provinces,” said Mohammed VI, in a statement released by their respective cabinet.

Morocco has expressed “satisfaction” with this “advance” and has committed itself to “respecting the ceasefire” and has, however, called on the United Nations to stop “the regular meetings of the Council on the Sahara, its reports and information sessions”.

“The United Nations political process, which unfortunately has been marked by the delays of other parties and their obstinacy in creating impasses and perpetuating the status quo, is suspended. Similar measures will soon be taken in other United Nations bodies,” he said.

The statements come after Russia vetoed a motion for a resolution by the United States on the extension of the mandate of the UN mission in the Western Sahara, which ends today.

Shortly thereafter, Moscow presented its own motion for a resolution, which omitted any reference to the autonomy plan – drawn up by Rabat, supported by Washington and rejected by the Polisario Front – and which provided for a further year to extend the mandate of MINURSO.

Following this decision, the United States also decided to exercise its right of veto, so it was not possible to adopt any resolution defining the mandate of the United Nations peace mission.

Polisario advocates the holding of the referendum on self-determination of the former Spanish colony in Africa, as signed by all parties in 1991, at the UN headquarters in New York, a consultation that never took place.

In 2007, Morocco submitted a proposal, rejected by Polisario, which envisages giving the Western Sahara greater autonomy to Rabat, but always under the sovereignty of Morocco, a plan that has been gaining international support from countries such as the United States, Spain or France, among others.

The Western Sahara is officially considered by the UN as a non-autonomous territory since 1973, inserted in the decolonization process, and is on the list of territories awaiting decolonization and self-determination, being often cited as the “last colony of Africa”.