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UN envoy to undertake regional visit ahead of upcoming Western Sahara talks

UN envoy to undertake regional visit ahead of upcoming Western Sahara talks

A MINURSO officer chats with a group of local Western Saharans
The envoy spearheading United Nations efforts to help resolve the dispute over the status of Western Sahara is scheduled to travel to the region ahead of the next round of informal meetings scheduled for November, it was announced today.

Christopher Ross, the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General, will head to the region on 18 October for consultations with the parties, Morocco and the Frente Polisario, and the neighbouring States, Algeria and Mauritania.

The last informal meeting on the Western Sahara issue was held in upstate New York in February, at which time the parties reiterated their commitment to continue their negotiations as soon as possible.

The informal talks are held in accordance with Security Council resolution 1871, which called on the parties to continue their dialogue under the auspices of the Secretary-General without preconditions to achieve “a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.”

Fighting broke out between Morocco and the Frente Polisario after Spanish colonial administration of Western Sahara ended in 1976. Morocco has presented a plan for autonomy while the position of the Frente Polisario is that the territory’s final status should be decided in a referendum on self-determination that includes independence as an option.

A UN mission, known as MINURSO, has been entrusted with monitoring the ceasefire reached in September 1991 and organizing a referendum on self-determination.