UN approves resolution supporting Morocco’s claim to Western Sahara | Western Sahara
The UN Security Council has approved a US-backed resolution backing Morocco’s claim to disputed Western Sahara despite fierce opposition from Algeria.
Although Friday’s vote was split, the resolution offers the strongest support yet for Morocco’s plan to preserve sovereignty over the region, which is also backed by most European Union members and a growing number of African allies.
The resolution refers to Morocco’s plan as the basis for negotiations. As with similar resolutions in previous years, the text makes no mention of a self-determination referendum that includes independence as an option, the solution long favored by the pro-independence Polisario Front and its allies including Algeria, Russia and China.
Western Sahara is a phosphate-rich coastal desert the size of Colorado that was under Spanish rule until 1975. It is claimed by the Polisario Front, which operates from refugee camps in Morocco and southwestern Algeria and claims to represent indigenous Sahrawi people in the disputed region.
The United States, which sponsored the resolution, led 11 countries to vote in favor, while three countries (Russia, China and Pakistan) abstained. Algeria, Polisario’s primary donor, opposed the measure.
US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz said the vote was “historic” and would “give momentum to a long, long overdue peace in Western Sahara”.
Algerian UN Ambassador Amar Bendjama said the resolution was an improvement over previous versions but “still has some shortcomings”.
“I say below, below the expectations and legitimate aspirations of the people of Western Sahara, represented by the Polisario Front,” he said.
The decision states that “real autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty may be the most appropriate solution.”
The measure also renews the UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara for another year, as has been done for more than three decades. However, previous extensions did not contain any reference to the outcome preferred by Morocco and its allies.
The UN resolution calls on all parties involved to “seize this unprecedented opportunity for a lasting peace”. Depending on progress, secretary-general António Guterres is asked to review the peacekeeping mission’s mandate within six months.
This change could shake up a long-stagnant process that has remained unresolved for decades despite a tentatively designed UN peacekeeping mission. Demonstrations began this week in Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria, where people vowed not to give up their struggle for self-determination.
Morocco controls almost all of Western Sahara, except for a narrow strip known as the “free zone” located east of the Moroccan-built sand wall.
The aim of the 1991 ceasefire was to pave the way for a referendum on self-determination, but fights over voter eligibility prevented this from happening.
Over the years, Morocco has transformed the disputed territory by building a deep-water port and a 656-mile (1,055 km) highway. Government subsidies keep food and energy prices low, and the population is growing as Moroccans settle in cities like Dakhla and Laayoune.
Polisario withdrew from the ceasefire in 2020 after clashes near the road laid by Morocco to Mauritania.
While the group has regularly reported military activity since then, Morocco has mostly denied open conflict. The United Nations calls these “low-level hostilities.”
In response to the draft resolution, Polisario said it would not “participate in any process aimed at ‘legitimizing’ Morocco’s illegal military occupation” and that peace “can never be achieved by rewarding expansionism.”
The Moroccan Foreign Ministry did not respond to questions before the vote, but King Mohammed VI said in a statement afterwards that the move “opens a new and victorious page in the process of exalting the Moroccan character of the Sahara and aims to bring this issue to a definitive end.”
Conflict is the driving force of North African diplomacy. Morocco sees support for its autonomy plan as a benchmark by which it measures its allies.
Last October, UN envoy Staffan de Mistura proposed dividing Western Sahara, but neither side accepted the proposal. He called on Morocco to clarify what autonomy would include and warned that the lack of progress could raise questions about the role of the United Nations and “whether there is still space and willingness for us to be useful.”
The United Nations effort to reassess the Referendum Mission in Western Sahara comes as the United States cuts funding to UN programs and agencies, including peacekeeping.
U.S. officials are taking an à la carte approach to funding; They choose which operations and institutions they believe are aligned with Trump’s agenda and which no longer serve U.S. interests. They argue that the UN budget and institutions are bloated. They promise to withhold new contributions until every UN agency and program has been reviewed.
