The Moroccan Center for Strategic Studies and Research (CEMERS) strongly criticized the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for the Sahara Staffan de Mistura’s suggestion of dividing the Moroccan Sahara between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front in a press release recently issued. The think tank rejected partition as a potential resolution to the Sahara issue and called de Mistura’s proposal “alarming and arbitrary.”
The center stated, “De Mistura’s actions represent a serious deviation from the diplomatic norms governing such regional disputes, which are strictly bound by UN regulations that cannot be compromised. The matter is exclusively on the UN agenda within a recognized process that dismisses any ill-conceived ideas.”
Both Morocco and the Polisario immediately rejected the proposal.
CEMERS excoriated the Personal Envoy, saying the fact that he had offered it is “not surprising” given that the envoy had previously publicly engaged in discussions about the territorial dispute at the invitation of the South African government without any “prior announcement or justification,” which it called a “violation of international agreements and an end-run around all UN regulations” governing his mission.
The Moroccan think tank asserted that De Mistura’s proposal “challenges the central role of the UN and seeks to undermine its exclusive authority with proposals that have gained wide acceptance in addressing this fabricated regional dispute.” Major, influential countries have already recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara.
CEMERS decried the Special Envoy’s suggestion as “armed robbery—comparable to the tactics of highway bandits.” It asserted that the act constitutes “an open admission of smuggling the national cause of Moroccans into corrupt and rotten realms, which seeks to dilute, undermine, and distort its UN framework.”
In a seeming attempt “to subvert global diplomatic norms and undermine the foundations and principles of international law,” Mistura’s actions are “shuffling the cards and rearranging them according to Machiavellian schemes, reminiscent of political and diplomatic fraud, with the intent to sabotage UN efforts and blur its global roles in conflict resolution,” the center said in its blistering response.
The thinktank urged Morocco’s decision-makers to respond with “utmost seriousness and rigor” to De Mistura’s suggestion, dismiss any irrational justification he may offer for it, and call for a halt to all forms of engagement with the Personal Envoy until the questions surrounding his “ill-advised” move are addressed.