Western Sahara: meeting between the King of Morocco and the head of the UN

Morocco's King Mohammed VI and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed the thorny issue of stalled Western Sahara on Wednesday in a rare meeting in Rabat, the cabinet said. royal and the UN.

The Cherifian monarch received Antonio Guterres at the royal palace in Rabat on the sidelines of a forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) organized in Fez (north-eastern Morocco).

During the interview, Mohammed VI

,” according to a royal statement.

“Resume Negotiations”

The UN confirmed for its part that

, without further details.

The low-intensity Western Sahara conflict has pitted Morocco against the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, supported by Algiers, for more than 40 years.

Rabat, which controls nearly 80% of this former Spanish colony, advocates a plan for autonomy under its sole sovereignty.

The Polisario, for its part, is calling for a self-determination referendum under the aegis of the UN which had been planned when a ceasefire was signed in 1991 but never materialized.

This ceasefire was shattered in November 2020.

At the end of October, the UN Security Council called on the

to the conflict to

to allow a

solution .

A year ago, Antonio Guterres appointed Italian-Swedish diplomat Staffan de Mistura as his personal envoy for Western Sahara in an attempt to revive the deadlocked political process.

Staffan de Mistura has since traveled to the region several times to meet the various actors.

But in his recently published annual report, Antonio Guterres said he was

Mohammed VI reiterated on Wednesday

, said the royal cabinet.

Morocco considers the question of Western Sahara as its main

and