UN Security Council to discuss Western Sahara after Trump policy switch
The UN Security Council is planning to discuss Western Sahara on Monday, diplomats said, after US President Donald Trump recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed region in return for the kingdom normalizing ties with Israel.
Trump’s announcement last week was a departure from long- standing US policy on Western Sahara. A closed- door UN Security Council meeting on the situation was requested by Germany, diplomats said.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft sent a copy of Trump’s proclamation recognizing “that the entire Western Sahara territory is part of the Kingdom of Morocco” to UN Secretary- General Antonio Guterres and the Security Council on Tuesday.
The US had supported a 1991 ceasefire between Morocco and the Algeriabacked Polisario Front, a breakaway movement that seeks to establish Western Sahara as an independent state. The cease- fire is monitored by UN peacekeepers.
The region has effectively been split by an earthen wall separating an area controlled by Morocco that it claims as its southern provinces, and territory controlled by the Polisario with a
UN- mandated buffer zone between them.
UN talks have long failed to broker an agreement on how to decide on self- determination. Morocco wants an autonomy plan under Moroccan sovereignty. The Polisario wants a UN- backed referendum including on the question of independence.
US President- elect Joe Biden, due to succeed Trump on January 20, will face a decision whether to accept the US deal with Morocco on the Western Sahara, which no other Western country has done. A Biden spokesperson declined to comment.
Guterres’ “position remains unchanged,” said UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric last week.
In October, the 15- member Security Council extended the UN peacekeeping mission for a year, adopting a resolution that “emphasizes the need to achieve a realistic, practicable and enduring political solution to the question of Western Sahara based on compromise.”