New York (UN), 6 November 2021 (SPS) - The Polisario Front representative to the United Nations (UN), and responsible for coordination with the Minurso, Sidi Mohamed Omar, met on Friday with the personal envoy of the UN Secretary General for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, on a visit to New York, on the prospects of the peace process in Western Sahara.
The meeting, which took place at the headquarters of the United Nations General Secretariat, was an opportunity for Mr. Sidi Mohamed Omar to inform Mr. Staffan de Mistura on the position of the Polisario Front vis-à-vis the prospects of the peace process in Western Sahara.
The UN SG had announced on 6 October the appointment of Mr Staffan De Mistura to replace Mr Horst Kohler, the former German President who resigned from his mission in May 2019.
In a statement issued following the appointment of Mr. De Mistura, the Polisario Front recalled that this appointment "comes at a time when the UN peace process in Western Sahara has experienced, from 6 September 1991 to 13 November 2020, extremely dangerous developments.
"Morocco has undermined the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) as established in Security Council resolution 690 (1991) and relevant resolutions, torpedoed the ceasefire and once again declared war on the Sahrawi people," the Polisario Front said.
"The Polisario Front, which has demonstrated through concrete actions its genuine commitment to a peaceful and lasting solution for the decolonisation of Western Sahara, stresses that no genuine, credible and viable peace process, which would serve the cause of peace, security and stability in the region, will be possible as long as the occupying state of Morocco persists, with impunity, in its illegal actions and its attempts to impose by force a colonial fait accompli in occupied Western Sahara."
It also reaffirmed that "the only way" to achieve a peaceful, just and lasting solution guaranteeing the decolonisation of Western Sahara is for the Sahrawi people to freely and democratically exercise its inalienable and non-negotiable right to self-determination and independence in accordance with international legality and the relevant United Nations and African Union resolutions.
The Polisario Front had furthermore stated that it "looks forward" to discussing with the new Personal Envoy of the UN SG how he plans to carry out his mission to enable the people of Western Sahara to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence.
062/T