Security Council fails to agree on Western Sahara

Russia vetoed a US-drafted resolution on Western Sahara at the Security Council on Friday, leaving the UN peacekeeping mission there without a renewed mandate just a day before it expires.

The resolution would have extended the mission for another year while cementing Morocco's autonomy plan as the only basis for talks to settle the half-century-old conflict and scaling back its military component.

The council then defeated a rival Russian resolution to extend the mission for a year. That draft got three votes in favor and one against, with 11 abstentions, failing to get the nine affirmative votes needed to pass.

The showdown threatens the future of a mission the council has routinely renewed for decades and deepens a dispute over the territory, most of which is controlled by Morocco but claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which seeks an independent state.

Morocco's royal palace welcomed the failure to renew the mission, saying its personnel and equipment should leave Western Sahara in the coming days. Morocco said it remained committed to the ceasefire in the territory. Polisario representative Sidi Omar thanked Russia for vetoing the US-backed resolution, which he said would "torpedo the foundations of the UN peace process" and "threaten regional and international peace".

Unless the Security Council agrees to a last-minute extension, the mandate for the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, known as MINURSO, will expire on October 31.

Oxfam warned that losing the mission could put refugees at risk. Hostilities have persisted at low levels since Polisario said in November 2020 that it was resuming "armed struggle".

Last year, the Security Council dealt a blow to Polisario's ambitions when it backed Morocco's autonomy proposal as a basis for resolving the conflict and asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to submit a review of the peacekeeping mission.

The failed US resolution would have gone further, removing the reference to a referendum from the mission's name, renaming it the United Nations Mission in Western Sahara, or MINUSO.

Following the vote, US Ambassador Michael Waltz said a referendum had never taken place because of longstanding disagreements over voter eligibility.

"UN officials have been telling us this reality for 30 years," he said.

"Unfortunately, some members of this Council have used their veto to preserve the letter 'R' for referendum in the mission's name, even though the United Nations has not been preparing to hold such a vote for decades," he added.

France and the UK - the two other permanent Security Council members - along with eight non-permanent members, backed the US resolution and Morocco's autonomy plan.

MISSION AT RISK

Russia said the US draft went too far in endorsing Morocco's position on the disputed territory.

"We stress the fact that the Security Council cannot automatically predetermine matters relating to sovereignty," Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia said.

"The Security Council must not give a blessing to such a one-sided approach. Therefore we were compelled to block the adoption of the draft," he said.

With 155 military personnel, the mission, tasked with organizing a referendum as part of a UN-brokered ceasefire, is set to cost $62 million in the fiscal year that started in June this year, according to a UN Secretary-General report.

"The loss of MINURSO’s monitoring and de-escalation functions risks undermining security and stability, with serious consequences to civilians and prospects of a peaceful resolution," Oxfam said in reaction to the vote.

While most Sahrawis live in Morocco-ruled Western Sahara, tens of thousands are estimated to be living in Polisario-run refugee camps in Algeria.

The vetoed US resolution called for a census of the refugees.

UNITY DAY

Morocco's royal palace said the non-renewal of the mission was a "significant development" and that it meant the Western Sahara issue should be withdrawn from consideration by the Security Council.

"The non-renewal of MINURSO's mandate clearly means that the presence of the mission in the Kingdom's southern provinces, including its personnel, vehicles, equipment and symbols, should come to an end in the coming days," the palace said in a statement.

In Laayoune, the largest city in Western Sahara, streets were decorated with Moroccan flags and lights to prepare to celebrate “Unity Day”, a holiday the palace declared to commemorate last year’s UN Security Council vote on October 31.

On Wednesday, the Polisario staged a rally at the Smara camp near the town of Tindouf, in southern Algeria. 

A couple hundred men and women, waving flags of the Polisario's self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, gathered near Polisario fighters in military fatigues, waving signs with slogans such as "No to Morocco's autonomy plan. Yes to the right to self-determination".