The United Nations set its sights on restarting political talks on the disputed territory of Western Sahara after the Polisario Front independence movement pulled back fighters from a tense zone.
UN military observers confirmed that the Polisario forces carried out the withdrawal from the Guerguerat area, near the Mauritanian border, on Thursday and Friday, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
“This action should improve the prospects of creating an environment… to relaunch the negotiating process with a new dynamic and a new spirit,” he said.
News of the pullback came as the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution endorsing the new peace initiative and renewing the mandate of the MINURSO peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara for a year.
The 450-strong MINURSO is comprised mostly of military observers monitoring the 1991 ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario.
The council had postponed the vote on the resolution drafted by the United States to allow the Polisario Front to carry out the withdrawal, as demanded in the earlier version of the draft.
France, which has friendly ties with Morocco, had insisted on a pullback from Guerguerat after Rabat withdrew its forces in February.
Addressing the Security Council, French Ambassador Francois Delattre expressed hope that the resolution would give momentum to the talks and “open a new chapter that will benefit everyone in the region.”
The resolution calls on Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario to “show political will and work in an atmosphere propitious for dialogue in order to resume negotiations.”
The council gave its “full support” for the new initiative aimed at reaching a “mutually acceptable solution” and requests that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres report on the effort within 30 days.
Several ambassadors stressed that the push to restart talks presented an opportunity to end one of the world’s most intractable conflicts and warned all sides to engage seriously.
“This council will be watching what the parties do closely,” US Deputy Ambassador Michele Sison said following the resolution’s adoption.
Guterres told the council this month that he plans to restart negotiations “with a new spirit” and a “new dynamic.
Morocco and the Polisario fought for control of Western Sahara from 1974 to 1991, when Rabat took over the desert territory before the signing of a UN-brokered ceasefire.
Rabat, which considers Western Sahara an integral part of Morocco, proposes autonomy for the resource-rich territory, but the Polisario Front insists on a UN referendum on independence.
One of the hurdles in the way of restarting talks was cleared when long-serving UN envoy Christopher Ross resigned last month following tensions with Morocco, which accused him of bias in favor of the Polisario.
Former German president Horst Kohler has been tipped to replace him.
The United Nations opened negotiations between Morocco and the Polisario Front in 2007 and there have been several rounds since, with the latest held outside of New York in 2012.
However, there has been little progress over resolving Western Sahara’s future status.
After former UN chief Ban Ki-moon described the region’s status as an “occupation,” Morocco reacted furiously, expelling UN mission staff and threatening to pull out of UN peacekeeping. Most of the staff have since returned.
Guterres has spoken by phone with Morocco’s King Mohamed VI and met with Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali at UN headquarters in New York last month in a bid to revive political talks.
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