US says MINURSO cannot continue unchanged after vetoing Russian Sahara resolution

The United States said Friday that MINURSO could no longer be renewed indefinitely without a fundamental change in its mandate, after Washington vetoed a Russian alternative to an American-drafted Sahara resolution at the UN Security Council.

US Ambassador Mike Waltz accused Russia of blocking a proposal supported by 11 Council members that would have extended the UN mission while placing the Sahara dispute on what he described as a genuine path toward peace.

The Russian alternative received support from Russia, China and Somalia, while 11 members abstained and the United States voted against it.

Waltz defended Washington’s proposal as a good-faith effort to transform a peacekeeping operation that had failed to achieve its original purpose over 35 years.

He said the United States, as the resolution’s penholder, had accepted multiple amendments and conducted successive rounds of negotiations addressing refugee protection, self-determination and other concerns.

Waltz said Washington could no longer support renewing mandates that successive UN officials and independent reviews had found incapable of delivering their intended objectives.

He cited MINURSO’s own website, saying preparations for the proposed referendum had ended more than 20 years ago.

According to Waltz, the mission spends approximately 80% of its time resupplying itself, while ground patrols east of the sand berm face restrictions and aerial operations remain prohibited.

He recalled that former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had raised the possibility of ending the mission in 2002, after 11 years and nearly $500 million in expenditure without resolving the dispute.

Waltz also called for unrestricted access by the UN refugee agency to people living in the Tindouf camps and pledged continued US diplomatic engagement alongside the UN and Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy Staffan de Mistura.