UN Chief: Sahara Conflict Resolution ’Possible’ with International Support

This UN report was unveiled on April 1, and it’s not an April Fool’s joke. For the UN, the resolution of the Sahara conflict is possible. According to the AFP which consulted this report: "António Guterres told the Security Council that a settlement would require ’strong political will, not only on the part of the parties and neighboring states, but also of the international community’".

Negotiations between Morocco, Algeria, the Polisario and Mauritania resumed in December, at the invitation of the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the Moroccan Sahara, former German President Horst Köhler.

However, Antonio Guterres would have stated in his report regarding the two rounds of negotiations that have already taken place that the lack of trust between the parties was undermining them. He therefore called on all parties to "gestures of goodwill".

According to the AFP, Guterres "added that all delegations were aware that their people were turning to the recent talks with hope and had borne the costs of the conflict".

Let us recall that after the negotiations that took place on March 21 and 22, the Moroccan delegation had stated in a press release: "the international community is now unanimous that the Moroccan autonomy initiative is the only way to resolve the regional dispute in the Moroccan Sahara". This delegation was led by Nasser Bourita, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.