PRESS RELEASE
SECURITY COUNCIL INACTION UNDERMINES PROSPECTS OF PEACEFUL SOLUTION AND LEAVES THE DOOR OPEN TO ESCALATION OF THE ONGOING WAR
[New York – 21 April 2021] Today the UN Security Council held closed consultations on the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), which offered another chance for the Council to demonstrate its effective commitment to the peaceful, just, and lasting solution to the decolonisation of Western Sahara and to translate that commitment into concrete actions. The Security Council however opted for inaction and delivered no substantive outcome.
Given the gravity of the current situation, it is regrettable that the Security Council has missed another opportunity to set the record straight and hold the Moroccan occupying state fully accountable for the serious consequences of its documented breach of the 1991 ceasefire and Military Agreement no. 1 carried out on 13 November 2020 as well as its new act of aggression on the Sahrawi Liberated Territory.
The Security Council has also failed to address the alarmingly deteriorating situation in the occupied Western Sahara where the Moroccan occupying authorities persist in their attempts to forcibly impose a fait accompli in the Territory while intensifying their repressive and retaliatory practices against Sahrawi civilians before the very eyes of MINURSO.
The failure of the Security Council to take concrete actions to confront the serious consequences of Morocco’s breach of the 1991 ceasefire and its new aggression on the Sahrawi Liberated Territory as well as its unlawful actions in the occupied Western Sahara not only undermines the prospects of relaunching the peace process but also leaves the door wide open to the escalation of the ongoing war.
The Frente POLISARIO remains committed to cooperating with the efforts of the African Union and the United Nations with a view to achieving a peaceful, just, and lasting solution to the decolonisation of Western Sahara based on the free and democratic exercise by the Sahrawi people of their inalienable and non-negotiable right to self-determination and independence.
In this regard, the Frente POLISARIO underscores that the appointment of a new Personal Envoy for the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara (PESG) is not an end in itself. It is just a means to facilitate a robust and time-bound peace process leading to the free and democratic exercise by the Sahrawi people of their inalienable right to self-determination and independence. To this end, the Frente POLISARIO further underlines that impartiality, independence, competence, and integrity are indispensable prerequisites for any future PESG to restore confidence in the peace process and to succeed in his or her mission.
In the face of Morocco’s ongoing act of aggression and the inaction of the United Nations, the Sahrawi people are left with no option but to exercise their legitimate right to self-defence and to carry on their liberation struggle to defend their sovereignty and to fulfil their national aspirations for freedom and independence.
Dr Sidi M. Omar
Representative of the Frente POLISARIO at the United Nations
