RABAT: Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said on Monday that a recent proposal by a United Nations envoy to partition the disputed territory of Western Sahara was “unacceptable”, citing past rejections of similar plans.

In a closed session of the UN Security Council last week, Western Sahara envoy Staffan de Mistura proposed dividing the territory between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front in order to resolve a decades-old conflict.

Bourita said de Mistura had already made the proposal in a visit to Morocco in April, which the kingdom had rejected. “Morocco has not and will not even accept hearing the proposal, because it contradicts the kingdom and Moroccans’ principled position that the Sahara is Moroccan,” Bourita told a press conference in the capital Rabat.

Western Sahara is largely controlled by Morocco but the Polisario Front — which is backed by Morocco’s regional rival Algeria — has campaigned for independence for the territory since before colonial ruler Spain pulled out in 1975. It is considered a “non-autonomous territory” by the United Nations.

Rabat, which controls some 80 per cent of the vast expanse, 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 aegis of the UN, which had been planned when a ceasefire was signed in 1991 but never implemented.

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

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2024