Why is Morocco celebrating the defeat of a UN resolution on Western Sahara?
Mandate expires for UN mission tasked to monitor 1991 truce and hold a referendum in the disputed territory.
Morocco has welcomed the defeat of a US-drafted resolution which sought to extend the mandate of the UN mission in the disputed Western Sahara.
The mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) expired on Saturday after a veto by Russia, leaving the future of the peacekeeping mission in limbo. In 1991, the UN established MINURSO to monitor a ceasefire and prepare a referendum on the territory’s future.
Morocco has considered Western Sahara its own territory since 1975, when Spain withdrew from the desert region in northwest Africa which is roughly the size of Britain. The Algeria-backed Polisario Front seeks to establish an independent state called the Sahrawi Republic.
Algeria’s UN representative noted that the country has been a refuge for hundreds of thousands of Sahrawi people who have been denied their right to self-determination.