October opens a new diplomatic phase in the Moroccan Sahara file

Followers of the Moroccan Sahara issue are awaiting next October as a new milestone, as the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, Staffan de Mistura, is scheduled to brief the UN Security Council on the path of a political settlement of the conflict. This entitlement comes a few months after the Security Council adopted its resolution 2797, which renewed the mandate of MINURSO and placed the Moroccan autonomy initiative at the heart of any desired settlement. Background: What changed Resolution 2797? Ibrahim Balali Esweih, member of the Royal Council, sees Consultant for Sahrawi Affairs, that the recent UN resolution no longer puts the autonomy initiative as an option among others, but turned it into what he described as "the realistic and practical basis for any desired political settlement." He adds that this shift in international formulation "prompted most countries to explicitly and publicly support the Moroccan initiative," referring to the development of the positions of a number of international actors towards the Moroccan proposal in recent months. Sahrawi Voices: A stage that requires actual translation on his part, the student considered Pouya Abahazem, Vice President The International Union in Support of Autonomy and one of the sheikhs of the Sahrawi tribes, that the next phase "will be governed by the extent to which these movements are able to transform" the current diplomatic momentum into tangible results on the ground, noting that the success of this dynamic "will continue to depend on the ability of the parties to capture the ongoing transformation." This reading comes after a regional tour by de Mistura in mid-June, which included meetings with parties involved in the file. Why does this entitlement matter? Led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Maghreb Residents Abroad, Nasser Bourita, Moroccan diplomat at this sensitive juncture leading up to the October briefing. Periodic Security Council briefings are a moment to monitor the balance of diplomatic power on the issue, and their results are directly reflected in the course of negotiations and the official discourse of the various parties. To the extent that Resolution 2797 represents a political gain for the Moroccan position, according to the speakers, the Sahrawi actors supporting autonomy link the continuation of this momentum to the ability of Moroccan and international diplomacy to install it in the texts of Later International, starting with the next autumn station.