Skip to main content

Spain calls for political solution within UN framework to Western Sahara conflict

Submitted on

Madrid, 23 January 2022 (SPS) –  The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, reiterated Friday to Staffan de Mistura, "the need to find a political solution to the conflict in Western Sahara, within the framework of the UN," stressing that "it is an imperative to resolve this forgotten conflict.
"Mr. Albares reiterated to De Mistura, the new personal envoy of the UN SG for Western Sahara, the need to find a political and mutually acceptable solution for the parties (to the conflict), within the framework of the UN," said a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, quoted by the Europa Press agency.
The same source affirmed that "the minister said that it is a moral imperative to resolve this forgotten conflict (...). 
The head of Spanish diplomacy has, moreover, "reiterated the support of Spain for the good offices of De Mistura to bring the parties to sit down and negotiate an agreement, which his predecessors have not achieved," added the same source.
The personal envoy of the UN Secretary General for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, whose main mission is to revive the political process in Western Sahara, completed Wednesday his first visit to the region, on the background of the Polisario Front’s reaffirmation of its position in favor of a political solution based on a referendum of self-determination.
The member of the Polisario Front National Secretariat in charge of Europe and the European Union, Oubi Bouchraya Bashir had indicated that the success of De Mistura's mission was dependent on the adoption of a peaceful approach to the settlement of the conflict, in accordance with the UN-AU peace plan.
062/T