Key facts
- UN chief Antonio Guterres said the mission's liquidation phase would begin on November 1, with assets returned to troop-contributing countries.
- MINURSO had been deployed since a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991 and was also tasked with organizing a referendum that never took place.
- Russia vetoed a US-backed resolution backing Morocco's autonomy plan, and the Security Council then defeated a competing Russian resolution.
- Morocco's Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told state media the mission's referendum reference was an anachronism.
- Algeria's Foreign Ministry expressed deep regret on Saturday, blaming what it called excessive US bias toward Morocco.
The 35-year-old UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara will end after the Security Council failed to renew its mandate, UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Sunday. Guterres said in a statement that November 1 would mark the start of the mission's liquidation phase, with assets transported back to troop-contributing countries.
Morocco, which claims Western Sahara as its own, welcomed the decision, while the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which has sought an independent state there since former colonial power Spain left in 1976, expressed concern. The mission, known as MINURSO, had been in place since a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991. Besides monitoring the ceasefire, it was tasked with organizing a referendum that has never taken place because of disagreements over voter eligibility.
The end of the mission comes a year after the Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution that accepted Rabat's plan to give the territory autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty as the most feasible solution to the conflict. Russia, which abstained in that vote, this year vetoed another US-backed resolution that would have cemented the UN's preference for the Moroccan plan while scaling back the peacekeeping force. The Security Council then defeated a competing Russian resolution, leaving the mission to expire without a new mandate.
Morocco's Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told state media that the mission's reference to a referendum, the R in its name, was an anachronism. Rabat had been informed that Russia was going to block the US-drafted resolution, but saw it as an opportunity to review certain rules of the game, he said. Morocco's royal palace had said the non-renewal was a significant development toward withdrawing the Western Sahara issue from consideration by the Security Council.
Algeria's Foreign Ministry on Saturday expressed deep regret over the non-renewal, blaming the excessive bias of the US toward Morocco's position. The Polisario said in a statement it was concerned at the deadlock in the Security Council meeting.