Soon a new regional tour for de Mistura

The UN envoy for the Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, indicated on Wednesday that he would soon undertake a new regional tour to try to advance the process of resolving this conflict, at the end of a meeting behind closed doors. closed by the United Nations Security Council.

Asked by AFP if it would be in the coming weeks or months, he replied: “No, it will be — I hope — soon. » He also did not give dates to the Security Council, according to diplomats, or specify the places where he intended to go.

During a meeting, “all supported (my) efforts” to relaunch the process of political negotiation for a solution to this conflict, welcomed Staffan de Mistura.

According to diplomats, the members of the Security Council repeated during the session, which is biannual, their “same positions” on the conflict.

The UN envoy, appointed in November, made his first tour in the region in January, which took him to Rabat in Morocco, Mauritania, and Tindouf in Algeria to meet the Polisario there.

For Rabat, the relaunch of negotiations, suspended since 2019, must be part of ” round tables “ bringing together Morocco, the Polisario, but also Algeria and Mauritania. Algiers is however opposed to talks in this form, wishing for bilateral negotiations between the Polisario and Morocco.

Tensions increased in 2020 and 2021 between Algeria and Morocco, culminating in Algiers breaking off diplomatic relations with its neighbor in late August. In early April, the Polisario Front announced ” to break up “ any contact with the Spanish government of Pedro Sanchez after a reversal of Madrid in favor of the Moroccan position on the question.