They were rubbing their hands in Rabat before the decisive meeting of the UN Security Council this Friday in which the most prominent issue on the agenda was Western Sahara. But suddenly the cold water came from Russia, which used its veto right in this body to overthrow the resolution drafted by the United States that supported Morocco's claim of sovereignty over the former Spanish province and that would have put an end to the UN peace mission, in force for 35 years, in charge of helping to prepare a referendum on the future of the territory. It had been of no use that this very week the Alawite regime had dedicated itself to openly courting Vladimir Putin. Mohamed VI sent his new head of government, Fatima Zahra Mansouri, to Moscow on Wednesday, in what was her first international trip after taking office, to participate at the highest level in the third Russia-Africa Summit. The Moroccan delegation also included the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, and the Moroccan ambassador to Russia, Lotfi Bouchaara. And it was about the Kremlin not spoiling the party at the UN, as it finally did.
And yet, although Morocco did not get what it expected yesterday, it makes a virtue of necessity and takes advantage of the fact that the inability of the Security Council to adopt any resolution on the dispute allows it to bring the ember to its sardine. And the current mandate of Minurso, which was extended by resolution 2797 of October 2025, expires this Saturday. Hence, the blockade at the UN, although it has not allowed Rabat to add a new diplomatic asset to those that have recently filled its basket, led the Royal Cabinet of Morocco to celebrate in a statement that the non-renewal of the Minurso mandate represents "an important evolution and a significant step towards the definitive closure of the issue of the Moroccan Sahara in the United Nations."
"The presence of this Mission in the southern provinces of the Kingdom, especially through its personnel, its vehicles, its equipment and its symbols, should cease in the coming days," added the statement, which reads that "it should mark the end of the intervention of the Security Council and the withdrawal of this issue from its agenda. Consequently, the regular regulatory meetings of the Council dedicated to the Moroccan Sahara, the corresponding reports of the Secretary General of the United Nations and the briefings from his personal envoy". "In this way, the political process sponsored by the United Nations, which unfortunately has been marked by the delays of the other parties, their obstinacy in generating blockades and perpetuating the status quo, is suspended," according to the statement.
"Thus closes a 35-year page. Inherited from an anachronistic and now outdated context, this Mission has long been an instrument of internationalization of the regional controversy regarding the legitimate recovery by the Kingdom of Morocco of its Saharan provinces," continued the statement from the Royal Cabinet, in which it elaborated on the arguments that center Rabat's story on this issue.
Last year, the UN Security Council passed a resolution backing Morocco's claim to Western Sahara, a significant shift that coincided with Donald Trump's support for the Maghreb country. The resolution drafted by the United States that was put to a vote this Friday went much further. It would have ended the peacekeeping mission on April 30, 2027 and created a new political mission that would no longer prepare for a referendum. The text indicated that "genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only viable solution to negotiate a mutually acceptable solution."
Washington proposed changing the name of Minurso, eliminating the reference to the referendum and supporting the Moroccan autonomy plan as the only basis for negotiating a solution to the conflict, pointing out that the UN mission has not fulfilled its original objective. "After 50 years, the people of Western Sahara deserve more than another extension of something that cannot work. We have to try something new," defended the US ambassador, Mike Waltz.
The resolution had the abstention of China, but was vetoed by Russia, which, for its part, put another resolution of its own on the table, with which it would simply have extended the current mandate of the peacekeeping mission until October 31, 2027. An initiative to continue buying time, come on. But Moscow's proposal did not reach the minimum of nine affirmative votes in the 15-member body, so there was no need for the US to veto it.
Everything happens in the last hours in force, as we said, of the current mandate of Minurso. But also when this Saturday Morocco celebrates for the first time what they pompously call Unity Day, established by King Mohamed VI following the historic milestone of October 31 last year in which the Security Council, pushed by Trump, took a fundamental step to hand Western Sahara to Rabat on a silver platter.
On the occasion of this holiday, Mohamed VI has granted pardon to 907 people convicted of different types of crimes, including 613 who were serving their sentences in prison, as announced by the Ministry of Justice in a statement.
