Geneva (Switzerland), December 8, 2018 (SPS) – M’hammad Khaddad , member of the National Secretariat of the Polisario Front, and member of the Sahrawi negotiating delegation in the roundtable, which concluded Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland, has said that the United States of America has shown a clear interest in finding a solution to the conflict in Western Sahara, especially since last April, and accompanied the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, Horst Koehler, in his endeavors, which created hope to reach a just solution that respects the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination.
He emphasized that the meeting, which brought together the parties to the conflict and the neighboring countries, was in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2440, which called on the parties to the conflict, the Polisario Front and Morocco, to initiate the negotiating process.
In a response to question of Sahrawi News Agency (SPS) on the agenda of the round table, Mr. Khaddad said that «it focused on three points, the first of which was each party’s assessment of the current status of Western Sahara decolonization process since the cessation of the negotiating process in 2012,» adding that the second point was discussion of «the obstacles and challenges of building the Maghreb space and the possibility of contributing to the peace process, and the third point was the prospects of the settlement process.»
The Saharawi official explained that the discussions in general proceeded in calm conditions and without problems, stressing that all parties have agreed that the continuation of the issue of Western Sahara without a solution impedes progress of the Arab Maghreb in the union endeavor.
Regarding the upcoming meeting between the two parties, he said that all parties welcomed the call for holding a new round of talks in the first quarter of the next year.
The member of the Sahrawi negotiating delegation said that the Moroccan delegation had no sincere desire to reach a solution, except for the promises which do not find their way to implementation, which makes the Moroccan position negative, considering that this new dynamic, including the organization of this round table, was the result of the insistence by the Security Council since last April to make progress on the path of the United Nations settlement, which is reflected in the reduction of MINURSO’s mandate from one year to six months in order to pressure the parties to move forward on the peace process. (SPS)