UN peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara ends after 35 years, UN chief says

The 35-year-old UN peacekeeping mission in the Western Sahara region ​will come to an end after the ​Security Council failed to renew its ‌mandate, ​the UN chief said on Sunday. Morocco, which claims the Western Sahara as its own, welcomed the decision, while its opponents in the Algeria-backed Polisario Front ‌expressed concern.

The Polisario Front has been seeking an independent state in Western Sahara since former colonial power Spain left in 1976. A peacekeeping mission, known as MINURSO, has been in place there since a UN-brokered ceasefire ‌in 1991.

November 1 would mark the start of the “liquidation phase” of the mission, with assets transported back ‌to troop-contributing countries, UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement. The end of the peacekeeping mission comes a year after the UN Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution that accepted Rabat's plan to give the territory autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty as the "most feasible" ⁠solution ​to the conflict.

Russia, which abstained ⁠in last year's vote, this year vetoed another US-backed resolution that would have cemented the UN's preference for the Moroccan plan while ⁠scaling back the peacekeeping force. The Security Council then defeated a competing Russian resolution, leaving the mission to expire without ​a new mandate.

Besides monitoring the ceasefire, MINURSO was tasked with organizing a referendum that has never taken ⁠place due to disagreements over voter eligibility. Morocco's Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told state media that the mission's reference to a referendum - the “R” ⁠in ​its name - was an "anachronism".

Rabat had been informed that Russia was going to block the US-drafted resolution, but saw it as "an opportunity to review certain rules of the game", he said. Morocco's royal palace had ⁠said the non-renewal of the mission was a "significant development" towards withdrawing the Western Sahara issue from consideration by ⁠the Security Council.

Algeria's Foreign ⁠Ministry on Saturday expressed "deep regret" over the non-renewal, blaming the "excessive bias" of the US towards Morocco's position. The Polisario said in a statement it was "concerned at the deadlock ‌in the Security ‌Council meeting."