MINURSO mandate not renewed: Royal Cabinet says mission’s presence to end

The Royal Cabinet said on Friday, Oct. 30, that MINURSO’s presence in the Kingdom’s southern provinces should end in the coming days. This includes its personnel, vehicles, equipment and symbols. The announcement followed the UN Security Council’s failure to renew the MINURSO mandate at its meeting that day.

In a communiqué, the Royal Cabinet described the outcome as a major turning point for the Moroccan Sahara issue at the world body.

“It is an important development and a significant step towards the definitive closure of the Moroccan Sahara file at the United Nations.”

Coinciding with Unity Day

According to the communiqué, the development coincides with the celebration of Unity Day. The holiday was decreed by His Majesty King Mohammed VI to mark a break in the handling of the file, moving from simple management to a deep transformation of its parameters.

The Royal Cabinet said “a page of 35 years” has now been turned. It described MINURSO as a mission inherited from an “anachronistic and bygone” context. In its view, the mission long served as a tool for internationalising the regional dispute over the Kingdom of Morocco’s legitimate recovery of its Saharan provinces.

Council review to end

The communiqué added that the non-renewal should mark the end of the Security Council’s handling of the matter and remove it from the Council’s agenda. Once that happens, it said, there would be no further grounds for the Council’s periodic statutory meetings on the Moroccan Sahara. The same would apply to the related reports of the UN Secretary-General and the briefings by his Personal Envoy.

The Royal Cabinet said the UN political process has thereby been suspended. It argued that the process had been marked by the procrastination of the other parties and their insistence on creating deadlock and prolonging the status quo. It also announced that “similar actions will also be taken soon” within other UN bodies.

Commitment to the ceasefire

While welcoming the outcome, Morocco remains firmly attached to the ceasefire, the communiqué said. That commitment rests on strict respect for the Kingdom’s territorial integrity, its national security and the tranquillity of its citizens.

The international momentum launched by His Majesty the King will continue at the bilateral and regional levels, the Royal Cabinet said. According to the communiqué, more than two-thirds of UN member states clearly back autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty as the only framework for settling the dispute. These include permanent members of the Security Council and other influential powers.

The statement followed Friday’s Security Council meeting, at which neither of the two draft resolutions on the mission’s mandate was adopted.