At the time when the Sahara was peacefully decolonized in 1975 from the Spanish Protectorate, the SADR did not exist, said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in response to a question at a conference held by Paris Sciences Po on Friday.
Speaking to dozens of university students in the presence of professors and specialists, Guterres explained that the Sahara was decolonized in 1975 following a tripartite agreement between Spain, Morocco and Mauritania.
It was only after this decolonization that the world began to hear about the SADR.
Guterres recalled that Spain handed the Sahara to Morocco and Mauritania.
Concerning the little progress made in the Moroccan autonomy proposal, on the table since 2007, he said that the UN was not the cause of the deadlock, but rather the parties hampering the resolution of the conflict, referring to Algeria and the polisario.