A US military delegation, attached to the US Embassy in Rabat, met with officials from the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) in Laayoune on Tuesday evening, according to a UN source.
The delegation, which includes diplomats and military officials from the embassy, engaged in bilateral talks with Alexander Ivanko, head of MINURSO and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Sahara.
The discussions also included a meeting with General Fakhr al-Ihssan, the commander of MINURSO’s military forces, to assess the challenges and constraints related to peacekeeping in the region.
The primary aim of the visit is to gain a comprehensive understanding of MINURSO’s operations, especially its role in monitoring the 1991 ceasefire agreement brokered by the UN. The delegation is expected to address various challenges faced by MINURSO, which have escalated since the Polisario Front’s announcement of its withdrawal from the ceasefire agreement in November 2020.
The delegation will also discuss issues related to the Polisario Front’s attempts to impede the movement of MINURSO units east of the defensive wall, as detailed in recent reports by the UN Secretary-General on the Sahara dispute.
This visit marks the second time a US Embassy delegation has visited MINURSO headquarters. The first visit occurred in December, led by Colonel Seward Matwick Emerson and First Lieutenant Fischer Karl.
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