UN confirms start of process to wind up Western Sahara mission

Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesman for Secretary General Antonio Guterres said a team of UN support staff would oversee the withdrawal of the Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).

The peacekeepers were sent in 1991 to oversee a ceasefire and settlement plan between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front.

The two sides have disputed control of Western Sahara for 50 years.

Morocco claims sovereignty over the former Spanish colony; Polisario Front separatists, supported by Algeria and who represent the indigenous Sahrawi people, are seeking to establish an independent state called the Sahrawi Republic.

Guterres urged in the statement that the rights of the people of Western Sahara, including their inalienable right to self-determination, be respected and promoted.

The mandate expired on Saturday after Russia vetoed a US draft resolution to renew it.

The text, supported by 11 of the Security Council's 15 members, would have extended the mission for a year and placed Morocco's autonomy plan at the centre of efforts to settle the conflict in Western Sahara.

'Risk of an escalation'

Guterres said he was concerned about the risk of an escalation in hostilities and called on the parties to exercise the utmost restraint.

“The United Nations remains ready to continue supporting efforts to advance dialogue and achieve a peaceful settlement of the conflict through the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy, Staffan de Mistura,” the statement concluded.

Russia blocked the draft resolution, criticising what it called a “unilateral approach”, and proposed renewing the mission's mandate on the same terms as before.

"We stress the fact that the Security Council cannot automatically pre-determine matters relating to sovereignty,"  Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said.

"The Security Council must not give a blessing to such a one-sided approach. Therefore we were compelled to block the adoption of ⁠the draft." 

The US then vetoed the Russian proposal, and the countries that supported the American resolution abstained.

"Some members of this council have used their veto to preserve the letter 'R' – for the referendum – and the name that the United Nations hasn't even been preparing to hold for decades," said US Ambassador Mike Waltz. 

The representative of France, Jerome Bonnafont, denounced "Russia's obstruction".

EU backs Morocco autonomy plan for Western Sahara and eyes new partnership

Morocco's Royal Cabinet welcomed the non-renewal of the peacekeeping mandate.

Algeria's representative to the UN, Amar Bendjama, thanked Russia "as well as all the countries that chose not to be associated with such a blatant injustice".

Bendjama said that Algeria would continue to promote "a solution that guarantees the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination".

The Polisario Front's representative in New York, Sidi Omar, also expressed his "satisfaction" following the rejection of the US resolution.

Western Sahara, a Spanish colony until 1975, is controlled largely by Morocco and is considered by the UN to be a non-self-governing territory.

(with newswires)