Geneva, March 23, 2019 (SPS) - The second round table on Western Sahara, scheduled for Thursday and Friday near Geneva, is an “additional” step in the conflict resolution process, said the United Nations on Wednesday.
The meeting will be held according to the provisions of the resolution 2440 of the United Nations Security Council, as an additional step in the political process aimed at concluding a fair, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, providing for the self-determination of Western Sahara’s people,” said the institution in a communiqué on the eve of the holding of the meeting.
UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Western Sahara Horst Kohler invited the two parties to the conflict, Morocco and the Polisario Front, as well as Algeria and Mauritania, as neighboring countries.
The United Nations said that, as part of the meeting, the delegations will start discussing the elements “necessary to reach a lasting solution based on compromise,” underlining that the meeting “will provide the delegations with an opportunity to deal with some regional stakes and discuss confidence-building measures.”
Kohler has already held consultations with the delegations to prepare them for the holding of the round table and hopes, according to the communiqué, that the meeting will allow strengthening the positive dynamic of the first round table, held in December 2018.
Following the first round table, Kohler expressed his optimism by declaring in a press conference that a peaceful solution to the conflict in Western Sahara is “possible,” pointing out that “no one will win while maintaining the status quo and I am firmly convinced that it is in everyone’s interest to resolve this conflict.” (SPS)
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