New York (United Nations), September 12, 2023 (SPS) - The President of the Sahrawi Republic and Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Mr. Brahim Ghali, held talks on Monday with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. António Guterres. These talks come within the framework of the ongoing dialogue between the Sahrawi Party and the United Nations Secretariat.
The talks, which took place at the United Nations headquarters in New York, dealt with a number of issues of common concern, especially the reality and prospects of the United Nations-sponsored peace process in Western Sahara and ways to revive it, including ways to accelerate the completion of the decolonization of Western Sahara.
In this context, the President of the Republic, the Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, recalled the circumstances that led to the approval of the two parties to the conflict, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia El Hamra and Rio de Oro and the Kingdom of Morocco, on the OAU/AU and UN Settlement Plan of 1991, which the Security Council unanimously approved, with the aim of enabling the Sahrawi people to exercise their right to self-determination and independence like all colonized peoples and countries.
After referring to the obstacles created by the Moroccan occupying state to prevent holding a self-determination referendum, the President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, stressed the Sahrawi party’s rejection of the silence of the United Nations regarding the dangerous and provocative practices carried out by the occupying state in the occupied Sahrawi territories, which are carried out in full view of MINURSO.
He also called on the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Security Council to call things by their names and hold the occupying state fully responsible for violating and torpedoing the ceasefire on November 13, 2020, which is considered a dangerous escalation that has undermined the peaceful efforts of the United Nations and now threatens the security and stability of the entire region.
The President of the Republic referred to the attempts of some parties to deviate the entire peace process from its clear legal framework by introducing some broad terms such as “realism” and “practicality” into Security Council resolutions, strongly emphasizing that the Sahrawi party rejects in its entirety this dangerous approach, which will only encourage the Moroccan occupying state to persist in its illegal military occupation of parts of our national territory in flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the principles of international law.
In conclusion, the President of the Republic, the Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, stressed that the Sahrawi people are not warmongers and have made all kinds of concessions and sacrifices so that the peace process can move forward towards achieving its ultimate goal, which is enabling the Sahrawi people to exercise their inalienable, non-bargainable, or imprescriptible right to Self-determination and independence, recalling in this context the commitment of the Sahrawi party to cooperate with the efforts of the Secretary-General and his personal envoy for Western Sahara to end colonialism in Western Sahara.
At the same time, the President of the Republic and the Secretary-General of the Polisario Front affirmed that the Sahrawi people remain strongly committed to defending their rights and their uncompromising national aspirations by all legitimate means guaranteed by the Charter of the United Nations and the Constitutive Law of the African Union.
For his part, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. António Guterres, affirmed the United Nations’ commitment to the right of the Sahrawi people to self-fulfillment and to continue working to realize it in accordance with United Nations resolutions, expressing his hope that the efforts of his personal envoy to Western Sahara will succeed in accelerating the resolution of this conflict, which took a long time.
The talks were attended on the UN side by Ms. Rosemary Di Carlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs; Mr. Staffan de Mistura, Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara; Ms. Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, Assistant Secretary-General for Africa; and senior officials of the United Nations Secretariat and the Department of Political Affairs and Peacebuilding.
As for the Sahrawi side, the talks were attended by the member of the National Secretariat, the Polisario Front representative to the United Nations, and the coordinator with MINURSO, Dr. Sidi Mohamed Omar; the advisor to the presidency, Abdati Brika; and the advisor to the Polisario Front representation at the United Nations, Malainin Salama.
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