UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has called on Morocco and Frente Polisario (Polisario Front) to “take all necessary steps” to avoid escalation of tensions along the buffer strip between them.
Guterres, in a statement on Sunday, said he was deeply concerned about increased tensions in the vicinity of Guerguerat in the buffer strip in southern Western Sahara between the Moroccan berm and the Mauritanian border.
He said armed elements of Morocco and Frente Polisario remained in close proximity to each other, a position they have been in since August, 2016 and monitored during daylight hours by the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
“The Secretary-General calls on both parties to exercise maximum restraint and take all necessary steps to avoid escalating tensions, be that through the actions of military or civilian actors,” Guterres said.
He stressed that regular commercial traffic should not be obstructed and that no action should be taken, which may constitute a change to the status quo of the buffer strip.
He strongly urged the parties to unconditionally withdraw all armed elements from the buffer strip as soon as possible, to create an environment conducive to a resumption of the dialogue in the context of the political process led by the UN.
Guterres further called on the parties to adhere to their obligations under the ceasefire agreement and to respect both the letter and the spirit of it.
Western Sahara is located on the north-west coast of Africa bordered by Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria.
The colonial administration of Western Sahara by Spain ended in 1976 when it handed the territory to Morocco and Algeria, a move opposed by the Polisario Front.
Fighting later broke out between Morocco and the Polisario Front but a ceasefire was signed in September 1991.
MINURSO was deployed that year to monitor the ceasefire between the Government of Morocco and the Polisario Front and organizing, if the parties agree, a referendum on self-determination in Western Sahara.
A revised settlement plan was proposed by the UN after seven years of diplomatic consultations but was rejected by Morocco in 2004.
In approving the current phase of direct negotiations in 2007, the UN Security Council called for “a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political settlement which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara”. (NAN)
APT/YAZ