He Front Polisario received with “satisfaction” the resolution approved this Monday by the UN Security Council, which extends the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until October 31, 2024, but demanded “concrete measures” to advance the resolution of the conflict, which has lasted 46 years.

“In its resolution, the Security Council recalls and reaffirms all its previous resolutions on Western Sahara,” the Polisario Front said in a statement released late Monday.

The Security Council, he continues, “reaffirms its commitment to assist the two parties, the Polisario Front and Morocco“to achieve a just and lasting solution that ensures the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara” and “also recognizes the important role that MINURSO plays on the ground and the need for it to fully implement its mandate.”

Missed opportunity

The Frente Polisario regrets, “however, that the Security Council has missed another opportunity to take concrete measures that will enable MINURSO to fully implement its mandate established in Resolution 690 (1991).” And he adds that “the Security Council has also failed to respond decisively to the long-term restrictions imposed by the occupying State of Morocco on MINURSO, which seriously undermine the international character, as well as the authority and impartiality of the Mission.”

“The Polisario Front cannot fail to express once again its rejection of the continued silence of the Security Council, in particular some influential members, on the serious consequences of the violation and undermining of the 1991 ceasefire agreement by the occupying State of Morocco,” the Polisario Front said. the statement says.

Thirteen Council members voted in favor of the extension, with only Russia and Mozambique abstaining as they tried unsuccessfully to include any mention of the peacekeeping force’s original mission (a referendum on self-determination) and also to require Morocco to accept the extension. visit to the territory of UN human rights rapporteurs.

Polisario prepares terrorist attacks in Smara

This Monday, the Polisario openly declared that the attack that took place last weekend on the city of Smara, east of Western Sahara, under Moroccan occupation, is part of “a war in which we attack all positions of the Moroccan occupation forces.”

“It is no secret: we are at war (although) the occupying state does not want to admit it,” Polisario Front spokesman Sidi Mohamed Omar told the UN, referring to last Saturday’s rocket attack. According to Morocco, there were killed and three wounded, all civilians.

According to a Sahrawi diplomat, the organization carried out three attacks in the “Mahbes, Esmara and Faris sectors.” Asked whether the attacks coincided with attacks on the city of Smara, which Morocco also condemned on Saturday, which killed a 23-year-old civilian and injured three others, Sidi Omar did not answer directly, but added that his movement was in a state of “a war in which we attacked all positions of the Moroccan occupying forces.”

The Sahrawi envoy said the Polisario had never attacked civilians and also recalled that in nearly three years of fighting, which Morocco has always minimized, Moroccan attacks have resulted in the deaths of 24 civilians, including Sahrawis, Algerians and Mauritanians.

Shortly before the Polisario representative spoke at the door of the Security Council, Morocco’s ambassador to the UN, Omar Hilale, who assured reporters that the four shells that hit Smara fell in a residential area without any military installations nearby. However, Hilale said he still had no evidence that it was a Polisario attack, although he had “indications” and said his country would present the results of its investigation into the events to the Security Council.

If Polisario responsibility is confirmed, the attack will be the most serious in the region.

If the Polisario’s responsibility is confirmed, this attack will be the most serious that has occurred in the region, since in the three years since the Polisario’s ceasefire was violated, its attacks have been concentrated only against military installations located near the defense wall. .

UN Secretary-General António Guterres, in his latest report to the Security Council, noted that Minurso “continues to provide a stabilizing presence to create conditions conducive to the advancement of the political process,” which is being led in the territory by his Personal Envoy. , Staffan de Mistura.