Bir Lehlou, 2 November 2019 (SPS) -The Polisario Front said that the UN peace process in Western Sahara was "at a critical stage," on the verge of "collapse," noting that it had no choice but to reconsider its commitment to this process.
Reacting immediately after Wednesday's vote on the resolution extending the mandate of the Minurso for one year, the Polisario Front said that the text contained no "concrete action to advance the UN peace process," referring to "an unfortunate and unacceptable return to the status quo in Western Sahara."
This "is a serious blow to the political momentum that the Security Council has maintained over the past 18 months," added the Polisario Front, referring to the momentum provided by former UN envoy Horst Kohler, who managed to organize two round tables in Geneva six years after the Manhasset negotiations ended.
The Polisario Front considered that the supreme authority of the United Nations has again "missed the opportunity" to avoid "the collapse of the UN process in the face of repeated failures by the UN General Secretariat and the Security Council to prevent Morocco from dictating the terms of the peace process and the UN's role in Western Sahara."
It is in this respect that the Polisario Front recalled the "enormous concessions" it has made to advance the political process, despite Morocco's "intransigence and blackmail."
The Security Council's inaction against "Morocco's blatant attempts to transform the Minurso into a tool for normalizing its illegal occupation of parts of our territory has undermined the integrity of the UN peace process," the Polisario Front regretted. (SPS)
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