What's In Blue

Posted Fri 3 Jun 2011

Western Sahara Talks

Starting on Sunday, 5 June, the parties to the Western Sahara conflict will convene for three days of talks at Greentree Estate, New York . This will be the seventh round of UN-backed informal talks between Morocco and the Polisario Front. Neighbouring states Algeria and Mauritania will also be present. The talks, convened by the Secretary-General’s personal envoy for Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, will be the first resumption of informal negotiations since the Security Council renewed the mandate of MINURSO on 27 April. As has been the case with previous rounds of informal talks, Ross may issue a communiqué following the talks.

The goal is to further deepen the level of discussion of each party’s respective proposals on a settlement of the conflict. Parties are likely to discuss the status of confidence-building measures, examine demining possibilities, and identify possible additional innovative approaches and topics for future discussion. This series of informal talks began in 2009 when it became apparent that formal negotiations on a political solution were at a stalemate.

The last round of informal talks took place in Malta in March, after which Ross issued a communiqué saying that the talks had addressed innovative approaches, including measures of conciliation and the avoidance of any sort of provocation that could negatively impact the negotiating process. Natural resources and demining were also discussed. Ross, in his communiqué, also stated that the proposals of the two parties for a political solution to the conflict were again presented, but that “each party continued to reject the proposal of the other as a sole basis for future negotiations.”

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