Polisario Front Rejects UN-Led Western Sahara Talks, Calls for AU Mediation

The leader of the Polisario, Brahim Ghali expressed the position of the separatist movement in an interview broadcast on November 30 by Algerian television. The Polisario refuses to participate in the round tables of the negotiations on the Sahara. It opts for "a settlement of the conflict issue" through negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario "under the auspices of the African Union (AU)," reports the Algerian press agency APS.

"Two choices are available" to the kingdom: "the settlement advocated by the United Nations based on the organization of a self-determination referendum, or the negotiated solution advocated by the AU," argues the leader of the separatists, deploring the latest decision of the Security Council on the extension of the MINURSO mandate until October 31, 2022. According to him, the new Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, Staffan de Mistura "is finding difficulties in the exercise of his functions in view of the lack of will in the Security Council to find a solution to this issue, content to manage the conflict."