The United Nations envoy for the Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, met with Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali on Sunday in Algeria’s Tindouf camps, part of a regional tour ahead of a crucial October review at the U.N. Security Council.
Polisario outlets said Ghali reiterated the group’s willingness to engage in U.N.-led mediation but insisted that only a referendum on self-determination could settle the decades-old dispute, a position that clashes with years of Security Council resolutions urging a “realistic and mutually acceptable” political solution.
Morocco, which controls most of the territory, has offered autonomy under its sovereignty, a plan steadily gaining international traction.
De Mistura’s trip comes amid stepped-up international attention. A French delegation of senior diplomats and military officers landed in Laayoune on Monday to consult with the U.N. peacekeeping mission MINURSO on conditions along the bern wall, where tensions have grown since Polisario renounced the 1991 cease-fire in 2020.
The visit, led by Paris’s U.N. affairs officers and defense staff from the embassy in Rabat, signals France’s intent to shape the Council’s debate next month.
This year’s Council makeup heightens the political stakes. The United States and France remain strong backers of Morocco’s autonomy plan, while Russia has repeatedly signaled sneutrality.
China tends to hedge, pressing for dialogue without committing, and among elected members, Spain has tilted toward Rabat since its 2022 policy shift.
Analysts say the envoy faces heavy pressure to show progress after years of stalemate since the Geneva roundtables of 2018–19.
“He is still searching for a sliver of hope to revive negotiations,” said Abdennabi Kayen of Africa Watch, pointing to Algeria’s refusal to join direct talks as the largest hurdle.
Other voices are trying to break into the conversation. The Sahrawis for Peace movement, preparing to attend the U.N. Fourth Committee in October, casts itself as a moderate alternative rejecting both hard-line separatism and uncompromising nationalism.
“Peace, however costly, is still better than endless war,” said its leader Ahmed Barikla in a recent essay.
De Mistura is expected to continue on to Mauritania before briefing the Council in mid-October, when members will weigh Morocco’s autonomy plan, Polisario’s referendum demand and the fragile future of MINURSO, one of the U.N.’s longest-running but least effective missions in Africa.
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