UN urges Morocco and Polisario to hold talks

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday called for new talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front over the issue of the Western Sahara, noting that the talks should discuss proposals by all neighbours about the issue.

“I intend to propose that the negotiating process be relaunched with a new dynamic and a new spirit,” Guterres told the UN Security Council.

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“For progress to be made, the negotiations must be open to both parties’ proposals and ideas. Algeria and Mauritania, as neighbouring countries, can and should make important contributions to this process,” he added.

The fundamental difficulty is that each party has a different vision and reading of the history and documents that surround this conflict.

A Moroccan foreign ministry source said the UN call was more objective in tone than past ones, while a Polisario representative said the front was ready for talks that were serious and without preconditions.

“The tone has clearly changed, and the parameters have taken into consideration a realistic approach that demonstrates the will to protect a certain degree of objectivity,” the foreign ministry source said.

UN efforts have repeatedly failed to broker a settlement over the desert territory, contested since 1975 when the Spain occupation ended.

The UN call for new talks came after months of tensions in the Western Sahara, which Polisario claims it is a separate area which belongs to the Sahrawi people who fought a guerrilla war against Moroccan rule until a 1991 UN-backed ceasefire.