UN envoy proposes partitioning Western Sahara

The United Nations envoy to Western Sahara has proposed dividing the territory between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front to resolve the decades-old conflict, AFP learned on Thursday.

“I have discreetly revisited and expanded with all concerned the concept of a partition of the Territory,” Staffan de Mistura said during a closed session of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, according to remarks seen by AFP.

Western Sahara is largely controlled by Morocco, but the Algeria-backed Polisario Front has been campaigning for independence for the territory since before the colonial ruler, Spain, withdrew in 1975.

The United Nations considers it a “non-autonomous territory.”

Rabat, which controls around 80 per cent of the vast region, advocates a plan for limited autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty.

The Polisario Front is calling for a referendum on self-determination under the auspices of the UN, which was planned when a ceasefire was signed in 1991 but never implemented.

De Mistura, a 77-year-old Italian-Swedish diplomat, has been Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ personal envoy for the territory for the past three years.

“Such an option could allow for the creation, on the 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 recognised,” De Mistura told the Security Council, according to his remarks.

At the same time, he acknowledged that there was “no sign of willingness to consider exploring it further from either Morocco or Frente POLISARIO.”

The Polisario said the plan fails to “enshrine” the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination.

Sidi Omar, the Polisario representative to the UN, said the movement “strongly affirms its total and categorical rejection of any ‘proposals’ or ‘initiatives’,” in a post on X.