United Nations, February 12: Morocco and the Polisario Front independence movement failed to narrow their differences Friday after two days of informal talks on the disputed Western Sahara in suburban New York, a UN statement said.
Christopher Ross, UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s personal envoy for the Western Sahara, said in a statement at the end of the talks that “neither party had accepted the proposal of the other as the sole basis of future negotiations.”
He said the two sides however reiterated their commitment “to continue their negotiations as soon as possible” and added that, to that end, he planned to travel to the region for further consultations with the parties and other stakeholders.
Ross said the discussions “took place in an atmosphere of serious engagement, frankness and mutual respect.”
The closed-door meeting at the IBM Learning Center in the hamlet of Armonk was modeled on a similar informal session held in Austria last August. It aimed to clear the way for a fifth round of formal talks between the parties.
Four previous rounds held in the New York suburb of Manhasset since June 2007 have failed to resolve the dispute over the phosphate-rich territory annexed by Morocco in 1975 after colonial power Spain withdrew.
Morocco’s annexation of the territory sparked a war between its forces and Algerian-backed Polisario guerrillas. The two sides agreed to a ceasefire in 1991 but the UN-sponsored talks on Western Sahara’s future have since made no headway.
Rabat has pledged to grant Western Sahara widespread autonomy but rules out independence.
The Polisario Front, with the support of Algiers, wants a referendum on self-determination, with independence as one of the options.
Mohammed Khadad, a senior Polisario official who attended the Armonk meeting, said the parties on Wednesday focused on human rights and confidence-building measures.
But he said that Rabat continues “to play down the issue of human rights” and to reject a probe by an international commission or a monitoring of alleged violations by both sides through the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) or the office of the High Commissioner for Refugees.”
“The ball is in the Security Council’s court,” Khadad said, stressing that the 15-member body must tackle the human rights issue when it meets in April to vote on renewing MINURSO’s mandate.
The Moroccan delegation was not available for comment.
Last year, several Security Council members voiced concern over the human rights situation in Western Sahara and some diplomats said the council may consider amending the MINURSO mandate to include monitoring human rights.
—Agencies