New York, 3 July 2022 (SPS) - The personal envoy of the UN Secretary General for Western Sahara, Staffan De Mistura, who begins a new tour in the region, is expected Saturday in Morocco, one of the two parties to the conflict, in a different context this time, characterized by Spain’s change of position on the issue.
"The personal envoy will travel to Rabat tomorrow (Saturday) to meet with Moroccan officials. He also intends to visit Western Sahara during this trip," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced Friday during his daily press briefing, without specifying whether the Italian-Swedish diplomat intended to visit Algeria and Mauritania, the two neighboring and observer countries.
However, he said that De Mistura intends to meet "all relevant actors in the region in the coming days", and "looks forward to deepening the consultations he began last January, with all parties concerned to advance constructively the political process on Western Sahara.
The spokesperson said De Mistura was making this tour "guided by the principles established by his predecessors," namely the American Christopher Ross and the German Horst Kohler.
This is staffan De Mistura's second visit since his appointment in October 2021, after the one made last January in Morocco, the Sahrawi refugee camps, where he met several leaders of the Polisario Front, the only legitimate representative of the Saharawi people, Mauritania and Algeria, neighboring countries and observers.
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