Western Sahara : The second round-table to take place on March the 21st and 22nd in Geneva

After the UN Secretary-General’s Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric announced last week that the second Western Sahara round-table will take place in the second half of March, reports suggested that the meeting will be held on the 21st and 22nd of the same month in Geneva.

Quoting sources close to the file, the Algerian press agency (APS) reported that the four parties will be invited to take part in the meeting for two days. «The parties in question have not been summoned officially yet», the agency wrote on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Moroccan online newspaper Le360 reported that the parties were «informed by Horst Köhler about the meeting» and that they «have separately agreed to meet in Geneva, on March the 21st and 22nd».

The personal envoy for Western Sahara had, reportedly, met, separately, with delegations from Morocco, Algeria and the Polisario Front to prepare for the second round of the meeting in Geneva.

The Polisario Front announced last week that its representatives held a meeting with Köhler on the 4th and 5th of March in Berlin, Germany, while Morocco and Algeria remained silent about their meetings with the former German president.

Moroccan diplomatic sources, quoted by several news platforms in the Kingdom, revealed that the Moroccan delegation, led by Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, met on the 27th and 28th of February with the UN personal envoy in Paris.

On the other hand, Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel headed a delegation to Berlin, where he held talks with Köhler on March the 2nd.

For the record, the United Nations Security Council revealed, March the 1st, the Provisional Program of Work for April 2019. During this month, members of the Security Council will hold four sessions on the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), which will have its six-month mandate extended.