New York, January 8, 2018 (SPS) - Morocco had strongly opposed the United Nations’ request to dispatch a technical mission to El Guergarat to examine ways to resolve the crisis in this buffer zone in the south of Western Sahara, The Polisario Front told APS on Saturday.
The UN mission provided for in the paragraph 3 of the resolution 2351 of 2017 of the Security Council, extending the mandate of MINURSO (UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara), which recognizes that the crisis of El Guergarat “raises fundamental issues relating to the ceasefire and related agreements” and calls on UN Secretary General “to examine ways to resolve it,” said Ahmed Boukhari, the Polisario Front’s representative to the United Nations.
It was also underlined that this provision of the resolution 2351 was the fruit of negotiations of several days at the Security Council which, by consensus, decided to examine the causes and effects of the violation of the ceasefire by Morocco.
Following these discussions, it was noted that the situation in El Guergarat required reaching a solution that goes beyond a simple violation of the ceasefire agreement to deal with the real causes of the crisis.
Boukhari said that an agreement was reached on dispatching a technical mission on site, adding that a month after the adoption of the resolution, the Sahrawi side held extensive contacts with the UN Secretary General as well as the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and that of the Political Affairs to implement the provision.
But Rabat had strongly opposed, in September, the request of the Secretary General, a refusal that constitutes an additional proof on Morocco’s willingness to worsen the situation. (SPS)
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