UN envoy proposes partitioning Western Sahara

UNITED NATIONS

A camel is silhouetted against the setting sun in the desert near Dakhla in Morocco-administered Western Sahara, on Oct. 13, 2019. (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP)

The United Nations envoy to Western Sahara has proposed dividing the territory between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front in order to resolve the decades-old conflict, AFP learned on Oct. 17.

"I have discreetly revisited and expanded with all concerned on the concept of a partition of the Territory," Staffan de Mistura said during a closed session of the U.N. Security Council on Oct. 16, according to remarks seen by AFP.

Western Sahara is largely controlled by Morocco but the Algeria-backed Polisario Front 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 percent of the vast expanse, advocates a plan for limited autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty.

The Polisario is calling for a referendum on self-determination under the aegis of the U.N., 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 Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' personal envoy for the territory for the past three years.

"Such an option could allow for the creation on the one hand of an independent state in the southern part, and on the other hand the integration of the rest of the Territory as part of Morocco, with its sovereignty over it internationally recognized," De Mistura told the Security Council, according to the remarks.