UNITED NATIONS, United States, (MILLAT ONLINE/APP/AFP): The UN Security
Council is expected to vote Thursday on a draft resolution backing a UN bid to re-start talks on settling the decades-old Western Sahara conflict.
The draft resolution would also put pressure on the Polisario Front
independence movement to immediately withdraw fighters from a tense buffer zone after Morocco pulled back its forces in February, according to the text seen by AFP.
The United States circulated the proposed resolution to the Security
Council on Monday after consulting with France, Russia and Britain on the
measure that would also extend the mandate of the UN peacekeeping mission in
Western Sahara for a year.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the council in a report this month that he planned to re-start negotiations “with a new spirit” to try to end one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.
“It is indeed time to look ahead and to re-launch negotiations, that is what we want,” French Ambassador Francois Delattre told reporters as the council met Tuesday to discuss the draft text.