chargement...
On October the 31st, the United Nations Security Council adopted a new resolution on the Western Sahara conflict. The document extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to six months, hailing the importance of a round-table meeting.
The latter is scheduled for the 5th and 6th of December in Geneva and will be attended by Morocco, the Polisario, Algeria and Mauritania. The two countries will be participating in the talks as, neighboring states, indicated resolution 2440.
A solution that is better than the status quo
Speaking to Yabiladi on Thursday, former Polisario leader Mustapha Salma Ould Sidi Mouloud thinks that the recent resolution serves the Moroccan stance without giving promising hopes about the solving of the territorial conflict.
«The Security Council is always trying to balance its positions, giving the Polisario six months to show its seriousness, praising Morocco’s proposal, and urging other neighboring parties to participate to the political process», he pointed out.
For Ould Sidi Mouloud, the solution to the conflict must be better than the «status quo». He believes that «as long as all parties are unable to prove their sovereignty over the area, they have no choice but to let go of their convictions and try to reach a common ground».
And regarding the Geneva meeting, Ould Sidi Mouloud thinks that «talks won’t be productive».
«Morocco says that the Polisario is not meant to be part of the peace process. While Algeria presents itself as a neighboring state the thing that was highlighted in the recent resolution too. Each one of the parties is trying to exclude the other».
To put it in other words, the former Polisario leader is convinced that «Algeria must participate to the political process as a party because it is not willing to stop controlling the Polisario and will not allow it to act for itself».
A positive step
On the other hand, Polisario co-founder and former leader Bachir Dkhil interprets resolution 2440 from a different angle. He believes that the resolution adopted Wednesday is very «important because it sees the plan introduced by the Polisario as an unrealistic solution to the conflict».
«I can tell that the security Council has reached a point where it realized that the only way to find a solution for the conflict is to bring together all the parties involved in the issue».
Contrary to Ould Sidi Mouloud, Bachir Dkhil sees the initiative as a positive step in the history of the conflict. «The ideal for the UN is to make these parties discuss the issue, hold talks and bring different solutions» he told Yabiladi.
Moreover, the Polisario co-founder indicated that «reducing the MINURSO’s mandate to six months shows that the UN is paying close attention to the conflict». The thing that can also be interpreted as a way of «pressuring» the parties involved, he added.
«The new Personal Envoy is trying to deal with the conflict in a new and different way and I think that bringing the parties involved together is a good start. It is not going to be easy but it is positive», he concluded.
