Sahara Stalemate: Polisario’s Peace Proposal Challenges Morocco’s Autonomy Plan

This initiative by the Polisario comes just over a week before the crucial debate in the UN Security Council on the renewal of the United Nations Mission for the Organization of a Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). In his letter to Guterres, Brahim Ghali recalled that the Polisario had proposed in 2007 a plan allowing the Sahrawi people to exercise "their inalienable right to self-determination", which should lead to the organization of "a referendum supervised by the United Nations and the African Union".

The plan also mentions "the establishment of strategic and mutually beneficial relations" between Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), which are disputing the Sahara. The Polisario states that "a peaceful, just and lasting solution to the Western Sahara conflict, in accordance with the relevant principles of international law, is not only urgent, but also possible if there is a sincere political will to move away from solutions based on the status quo and imposed unilaterally".

For its part, Morocco has also proposed since 2007 an autonomy plan for the Sahara, which it considers the most just, credible and realistic solution to resolve this issue. For Rabat, this proposal is still current. The Moroccan authorities reject the self-determination proposed by the Polisario and its main partners, including Algeria. The two parties are entrenched in their positions, maintaining the status quo in the process, despite the efforts of successive special envoys.