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The UN Secretary-General's Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, has suggested splitting the Sahara between Morocco and the Polisario as a potential solution to the territorial conflict, according to remarks reported by Reuters.
During a closed-door briefing to the Security Council on Wednesday, October 16, de Mistura stated that dividing the territory «could allow for the creation, on one hand, of an independent state in the southern part, and on the other hand, the integration of the rest of the territory as part of Morocco, with its sovereignty over it internationally recognized».
During the same briefing, de Mistura revealed that neither of the two parties, Morocco and the Polisario, accepted his proposal.
It is worth noting that on October 30, the Security Council is expected to adopt a new resolution extending MINURSO's mandate in the Sahara for another year.
In the lead-up to this new resolution, de Mistura held talks with the involved parties. On the sidelines of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September in New York, the diplomat met successively with representatives from Morocco, Mauritania, the Polisario, and Algeria. On October 3, he even traveled to the Tindouf camps to meet with the leader of the Polisario.
On November 1, Staffan de Mistura will mark the third anniversary of his appointment as the UN Secretary-General's personal envoy for Western Sahara, but he has yet to bring the parties together in a formal negotiating format.
Meanwhile, support for Morocco's autonomy plan has significantly grown in the last couple of years. This summer, France recognized that «the present and future of Western Sahara lie within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty».
With this announcement, Paris became the second permanent member of the UN Security Council to recognize Morocco's sovereignty over the Sahara, following the United States' endorsement in December 2020.
Other European countries have also voiced support for Morocco's autonomy plan for the Sahara, including Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, and the Czech Republic.
