UN halts MINURSO operations and begins winding-up
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Le Matin
After a US resolution on the Sahara failed, the UN announced that MINURSO operations would end and its winding-up phase would begin, Le Matin reports. The draft, blocked by Russia’s veto on 30 October, won 11 votes, including those of three permanent Security Council members; Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said Rabat knew Moscow’s intentions.
The United Nations has halted MINURSO operations, the mission tasked with monitoring the ceasefire in the Sahara, and opened its winding-up phase on Sunday 1 November. The decision follows the failure of two draft resolutions considered by the Security Council, Le Matin reports.
Morocco regards the mission’s disappearance as the end of a mechanism that has become unsuited to the dossier’s political evolution. Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said on the 2M channel on Saturday that Rabat had anticipated the Russian veto and refused to amend the US draft to secure its adoption, according to Le Matin.
The US draft provided for the 2007 Moroccan autonomy plan to become the sole basis for negotiations and for autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty to be considered the most feasible political solution. It also proposed renaming MINURSO MINUSO, removing the reference to the referendum, and adapting the tasks of the UN presence, Le Matin reports.
The halt to operations follows the Russian veto of the US resolution on 30 October and the failure to extend MINURSO’s mandate announced on 1 November.
