The Polisario Front announced this Thursday its rejection of the draft presented by the United States for the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), which expires in just over a week, and warned that it is willing to completely abandon the negotiations if a text that "fully reflects the position of Morocco, the occupying state" is maintained.
In a letter sent to the Security Council, the representative of the Polisario Front to the UN, Sidi Mohamed Omar, emphasized that "the content of the initial draft cannot serve as a basis for any deliberation on MINURSO or the peace process in Western Sahara."
The also coordinator of MINURSO added that "if this initial draft is approved without substantial and significant modifications, the Polisario Front will have no choice but to withdraw from the entire peace process."
The Sahrawi diplomat recalled that MINURSO, whose mandate expires on October 31, "was deployed on the basis of a mutual agreement between the two parties, the Polisario Front and Morocco," and insisted that "any unilateral deviation from this agreed framework and any distortion of the Mission's mandate to align" with Rabat "would undermine" the efforts of the international community aimed at the "decolonization" of Western Sahara.
In the same vein, he warned that "any attempt to legitimize aggression and the acquisition of territories by force cannot constitute the basis for a just, lasting, and consensual solution and will inevitably undermine regional peace and security and generate greater tension and instability," according to a note released by the official agency of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), the Sahrawi Press Service (SPS).
According to the news portal ECSaharaui, the document prepared by Washington proposes to initially extend the presence of the Mission, but at the same time foresees a phased reduction of its military component by at least 50% before January 31, 2027.
The draft also refers to the closure and restructuring of positions and operational bases of MINURSO, as well as the completion of tasks such as peacekeeping operations by April 30, 2027. From then on, the UN Mission would be limited to a strictly political role, with a mandate that would extend until October 31 of that same year.
The U.S. proposal sets the autonomy initiative presented by Morocco, revised and expanded, as the only reference for future conversations about the territory. At the same time, it asks the personal envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, to maintain contacts with various sectors of Sahrawi society, including those who are not part of the current negotiating framework, both in Western Sahara and in the refugee camps in Algeria and in the diaspora.
On the other hand, the U.S. text requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to complete the registration of the Sahrawi refugee population in the Tindouf camps in Algeria, for which it proposes a maximum deadline of six months.