The UN envoy to Western Sahara has proposed dividing the territory between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front to resolve a decades-old conflict.
“I have discreetly revisited and expanded with all concerned on the concept of a partition of the Territory,” Staffan de Mistura said during a closed session of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, according to remarks seen by reporters.
Western Sahara is largely controlled by Morocco, but the Algeria-backed Polisario Front has campaigned for independence for the territory since before colonial ruler Spain pulled out in 1975.
It is considered a “non-autonomous territory” by the UN.
Rabat, which controls about 80 percent of the vast expanse, advocates a plan for limited autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty.
The Polisario is calling for a referendum on self-determination under the aegis of the UN, which had been planned when a ceasefire was signed in 1991, but never implemented.
De Mistura, a 77-year-old Italian-Swedish diplomat, has been UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ personal envoy for the territory for the past three years.
“Such an option could allow for the creation on the one hand of an independent state in the southern part, and on the other hand the integration of the rest of the territory as part of Morocco, with its sovereignty over it internationally recognized,” De Mistura told the UN Security Council, according to the remarks.
At the same time, he said that there was “no sign of willingness to consider exploring it further from either Morocco nor Frente Polisario.”
The Polisario said the plan fails to “enshrine” the Sahrawi people’s right to self determination.
Sidi Omar, the Polisario representative to the UN, wrote on X that the group “strongly affirms its total and categorical rejection of any ‘proposals’ or ‘initiatives.’”
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