UN committee backs Sahara resolution with 152 votes, references Morocco autonomy framework

The UN General Assembly’s Fourth Committee adopted its annual Sahara resolution on Thursday by 152 votes to two, incorporating a reference to last year’s Security Council decision that made Morocco’s autonomy proposal the basis for negotiations over the disputed territory.

Morocco and Algeria both supported the text at the meeting in New York, while the United States and Israel voted against it. Seven countries abstained, including France and Britain.

The resolution, submitted by the committee’s Senegalese chair, would ordinarily have passed without a vote, as it has since 2006. This year, however, the American delegation requested recorded votes on all 23 draft resolutions before the committee, including those traditionally adopted by consensus.

The text’s principal addition is a reference to Security Council Resolution 2797, adopted on October 31, 2025. That decision called for negotiations based on Morocco’s 2007 autonomy proposal, under which Western Sahara would govern its internal affairs while remaining under Moroccan sovereignty.

The Fourth Committee’s resolution continues to call for a mutually acceptable political settlement providing for Sahrawi self-determination.

Morocco’s representative described Resolution 2797 as a turning point that had moved negotiations toward autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty.

The opposing positions persist despite a renewed diplomatic effort led by the United States and UN envoy Staffan de Mistura.

In February, representatives of Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Polisario Front met in Madrid and subsequently Washington, marking their first meetings in that format since 2019. Those discussions have not produced an agreement narrowing the parties’ differences.

Thursday’s resolution comes two weeks before the Security Council must decide whether to renew MINURSO, the UN mission established in 1991 to oversee a ceasefire and prepare a referendum that has never taken place.

The mission’s current mandate expires October 31, with de Mistura and MINURSO chief Alexander Ivanko expected to brief council members ahead of the decision.