"The United States supports the negotiations sponsored by the United Nations and the current UN mediator, Peter van Walsum. We believe that his efforts have been impartial and realistic and have promoted dialogue between the parties. These are the qualities needed to settle the conflict," said the same source.

    According to the French-speaking daily, the new American statement "is in line with maintaining the UN mediator, against the will of Algiers that has embarked on a hostile campaign against the UN diplomat," accusing him of "bias" for "having simply said out loud what everyone was thinking, by concluding the unreality of the fanciful thesis of independence".

    Beyond the unequivocal support it provides to the current UN mediator, says the daily, this American position reaffirms the support of Washington for the autonomy solution, deeming it "realistic".

    In this respect, the daily recalls that the U.S. Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, had already stood up for the UN facilitator, following his report of April 15 last year before the Security Council, wherein he had rejected the option of “independence” advocated by the Polisario and Algeria, describing it as “unrealistic” and not “feasible”.

    She had also said that the ideas and suggestions made by Peter van Walsum “deserved to be seriously taken into consideration.”

    “Our position on the Sahara remains unchanged, we believe that an autonomy that is mutually accepted is the realistic solution to the Sahara issue, and we have urged both sides to proceed on this basis,” the U.S. diplomatic source, who called on the Polisario to attend a fifth round of negotiations, told the daily.

    “The Polisario has entered into direct negotiations with Morocco over the Sahara since June 2007. It freely entered into these negotiations with a mediator mutually agreed on, namely the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for the Sahara, Peter van Walsum,” recalled the U.S. diplomatic source.

    Since June 2007, delegations from Morocco, Polisario, Algeria and Mauritania have taken part in Manhasset, near New York, in four rounds of negotiations under the aegis of the United Nations and in the presence of Mr. van Walsum in his capacity as facilitator of the negotiations.

Source: MAP
News and events on Western Sahara issue / Corcas