After conducting a second private session to consider the MINURSO mission’s report, the Security Council resumed its work on the Western Sahara file.
This session follows details of the report of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, some of which emphasized the “existence of obstacles” put in the way of the UN mission’s work in the Moroccan Sahara by the Polisario Front.
Among these obstacles are “placing restrictions on the movement of MINURSO personnel, which prevented them from maintaining the supply chain and the locations of their teams east of the sand wall.”
On March 22, 20 members of the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, according to the report of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, “stopped a MINURSO convoy in the Amherz region.”
The separatist front has continued to hinder international action, whether politically or on the ground, as these severe violations were repeated in Guterres’ earlier reports, which provided light on the reasons why no forceful actions have been made toward it.
At the end of this October, attention will turn to the new Security Council resolution on the Moroccan Sahara, which will take into account the details of the briefing of the UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, who visited the southern provinces, as well as the Guterres report, which did not bring any new points except that it reaffirmed “the role of Algeria and the Polisario in Obstructing international action, including MINURSO forces.”
Abdelouahed Oulad Mouloud, professor of public law at Cadi Ayyad University in Marrakesh, believes that “these violations were also referred to in last year’s Security Council resolution on the Sahara, which came as points in terms of form, while on the content level, it touched on the Polisario’s violations and its obstruction of MINURSO, which means repeating these signals.”
Oulad Mouloud added, in a statement to MoroccoLatestNews AR, that “addressing the issue of Polisario’s obstruction of the MINURSO mission is unlikely, because the Security Council’s resolution comes in a more general form, as the obstacles are mentioned but without addressing their details.”
He clarified that the Security Council would be informed of Guterres’ mention of the transgressions by the Polisario Front and his apologies for reiterating the themes of earlier reports.
The professor underlined that the world and the Security Council understand the details of the conflict and that obstructing the progress of resolving this file is always only from the separatist party.
Oulad Mouloud concluded that “Polisario has long denounced Security Council resolutions, as part of its efforts, with the support of Algeria, to obstruct a solution to the issue, in exchange for a Moroccan commitment through its realistic solution, which is autonomy plan.”
Addressing the Polisario Front’s obstacles
Ramadan Messaoud, President of the Sahrawi Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Madrid, recorded that “the international community, especially the Security Council, is required to act forcefully in the face of the Polisario Front’s obstacles to the efforts of the United Nations.”
In a statement to MoroccoLatestNews AR, he said “The Security Council is required to take a strong decision in the face of the Polisario’s violations of all signed agreements, the first of which is the 1991 ceasefire.”
The head of the Sahrawi Association stated that De Mistura examined the situation of the inhabitants of the southern Moroccan provinces, and also the conditions of detainees in Tindouf.
Based on the results, the international community must take action to resolve the fabricated conflict, he further explained.
Messasoud stressed that “the next decision will certainly bring something new, because De Mistura saw the reality of the situation in the field in the Moroccan desert, and also saw everything that is happening in the Rabouni camps in Algerian territory.”