The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution reaffirming its support for the political process–under the exclusive aegis of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)–to settle the territorial dispute over Morocco’s Sahara and reaffirm the suppression of the referendum option.
The UNGA fourth committee had adopted resolution 2703 last October.
Based on UNSC resolutions passed since 2007, the resolution urges all parties to actively collaborate with the UN Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy to find a diplomatic solution to this regional conflict.
In the resolution, the UN General Assembly affirmed the implementation of Security Council resolutions since 2007, and praised the parties’ commitment to uphold political will and to operate within a dialogue-friendly framework in light of the relevant developments since that time frame.
To find a “just, lasting, and mutually acceptable” political solution to the Sahara dispute, the resolution supports the political process based on the 19 different Security Council resolutions passed on the matter over the past 16 years.
The resolution called for comprehensive cooperation among the parties and for the Secretary-General to reach a “mutually acceptable political solution,” while also praising the efforts already made in this direction.
This resolution –as with earlier ones and those which the UNSC had passed over the past two decades–made no mention of the referendum as the UNGA, the UNSG, and the UNSC had all dismissed that option.