UN appoints envoy for Western Sahara after two years of research

Veteran United Nations diplomat Staffan de Mistura was appointed the organization’s envoy for the Western Sahara conflict on Wednesday, nearly two and a half years after the post became vacant, with a dozen other candidates being rejected by the government. Morocco or the rebel movement of the Polisario Front.

UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric called the 74-year-old Italian’s appointment by Secretary General Antonio Guterres a “positive signal” after such a long selection process.

Dujarric has said De Mistura will be set to take over the post, which has been empty since May 2019, on November 1.

Morocco initially rejected De Mistura – the thirteenth name proposed for the post – as an envoy in May before finally accepting the nomination under pressure from the United States, diplomats said.

He will be based in Brussels, where he already resides, according to the UN.

The Security Council plans to discuss MINURSO, the mission for peace in Western Sahara, in a closed-door meeting next week, before the mission is renewed on October 27, possibly for a year.

De Mistura “brings more than 40 years of experience in diplomacy and political affairs” to the post, according to a UN statement.

He will succeed former German President Horst Kohler, who resigned in 2019 after making little progress on ending the conflict despite the resumption of talks between Morocco, the Polisario Front and the regional powers Algeria and Mauritania.

De Mistura, who speaks English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Arabic, was previously the UN Special Envoy for Syria from 2014 to 2018 and was the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Iraq in the late 2000s and Afghanistan in the early 2010s.

The United States “warmly welcomes” De Mistura’s appointment, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, offering support for a political process aimed at bringing a “lasting and dignified” end to the conflict.

“We will actively support his efforts to promote a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of Western Sahara and the region,” the statement said.

The UN considers Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, a “non-self-governing territory”, with the question of its control pending for decades. The issue pitted Morocco against the Polisario Front, an independence movement supported by Algeria.

Rabat, which controls 80 percent of the vast soil-rich desert territory – bordering abundant oceanic fishing waters – has proposed a plan for self-governance of Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty.

The Polisario continues to demand a UN-supervised self-determination referendum, which was agreed to in a 1991 ceasefire agreement but still never took place.