As the Security Council vote approaches on the renewal of the MINURSO mandate (expiring on October 31), along with a debate on a draft resolution concerning the Sahrawi issue, the President of the SADR and Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, submitted to the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, an \u201cexpanded proposal\u201d for a mutually acceptable political solution that guarantees the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara and restores regional peace and stability.<\/p>\n
This proposal is an important step toward resolving the conflict with Morocco, which has occupied the territory since 1975, allowing for a break from the status quo and the revival of a peace process frozen since the 1991 ceasefire agreements and the Houston negotiations.<\/p>\n
The day before this Friday, Sahrawi Minister of Foreign Affairs and African Affairs, Mohamed Yasslem Bissat, provided further details on this proposal, defending the Sahrawi position and stating that this initiative aims to be \u201ccomprehensive, democratic, and anchored in international law, after more than 50 years of struggle against colonialism.\u201d<\/p>\n
During a press conference held at the Sahrawi Embassy in Algeria, Mr. Bissat presented the Sahrawi proposal as a proactive and voluntary response to multiple calls made to both parties\u2014the Polisario Front and Morocco\u2014to broaden and develop their respective initiatives toward a peaceful solution. \u201cThis proposal is a response to the Security Council\u2019s recommendations, inviting us to enrich the debate,\u201d emphasized the minister, specifying that it fits within the framework of ending colonialism and the effective exercise of the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination.<\/p>\n
Guided by the principles of the United Nations Charter and binding decisions of international courts, the Sahrawi offer incorporates classical options recognized by international law: total independence or a freely chosen integration by the Sahrawi people, respecting the borders inherited from the colonial era until 1975. \u201cIt is perfectly in harmony with the rules and customs of international law, which cannot be ignored, especially those related to conflict resolution,\u201d stressed Mr. Bissat.<\/p>\n
For the Sahrawi leader, this proposal, innovative and conciliatory in spirit, is \u201ca friendly, sincere, and noble gesture from the Sahrawi people toward their Maghreb brothers,\u201d describing it as an \u201coutstretched hand\u201d for a comprehensive, durable, and fair solution.<\/p>\n
After fifty years of war, the time has come, according to the head of Sahrawi diplomacy, to \u201cturn the page on the painful past and its wounds\u201d to embark on another promising future.<\/p>\n
According to Mr. Bissat, true peace is achieved \u201cneither by intrigue nor by maneuvering,\u201d even less through recourse to \u201cexternal parties or imposed solutions,\u201d referring to U.S. and French pressures to impose total annexation of the Sahrawi territory. Peace is achieved through \u201cresponsible dialogue and mutual respect based on exchanging benefits and confronting common challenges with reason, wisdom, and sincerity.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cStop supporting one party against the other, be part of the solution and not the problem, and support both parties together to enter serious and direct negotiations, without preconditions,\u201d Mr. Bissat further stressed in an appeal to the permanent members of the Security Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Morocco insists on its proposal (an autonomy plan inspired by Paris in 2007), which it presents as one of the options from which the Sahrawi people could freely choose,\u201d he warned that any attempt to impose a single solution would be \u201ctotally unacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that \u201crelying on external parties is a risky and costly choice, whereas dialogue with the Sahrawis remains the best option to achieve a just peace,\u201d expressing hope that \u201cour brothers in Morocco will understand\u201d this obvious truth.<\/p>\n
According to Mr. Bissat, \u201ctrue peace is not imposed by force, but it is peace that addresses the root causes of conflicts to prevent their recurrence.\u201d He recalled that the Western Sahara issue goes beyond local borders: it concerns \u201cthe attempt to oppose the modification of borders inherited from independence by force,\u201d threatening peace and security in the Maghreb region and across the African continent.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny illegal and undemocratic change of borders signals new wars and conflicts on our continent,\u201d he concluded, underlining the risks to the stability of African countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As the Security Council vote approaches on the renewal of the MINURSO mandate (expiring on October 31), along with a debate on a draft resolution concerning the Sahrawi issue, the President of the SADR and Secretary-General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, submitted to the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, an \u201cexpanded proposal\u201d for a mutually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-2909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mena-sahel","tag-sahrawi-cause"],"byline":"Hachemi B.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2909"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2911,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909\/revisions\/2911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeune-independant.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}