UN: Talks on Western Sahara conflict to resume

Tue, 02 Nov 2010

New York - United Nations talks aimed at settling the decades-old conflict in Western Sahara will resume next week in the United States, a UN spokesman said Tuesday.

Representatives of Morocco, Western Sahara's Frente Polisario, Algeria and Mauritania will meet November 8-9 in Long Island city, said Martin Nesirky.

"Solving the conflict in Western Sahara remains a priority for the United Nations and we hope the next meeting will be productive and will help the parties to move beyond the impasse," Nesirky said.

The parties met in 2009 and most recently in February under the mediation of UN special envoy for Western Sahara, Christopher Ross, but any progress made had not been made public.

Ross will also brief the UN Security Council next week on his diplomatic work in the territory.

Western Sahara has been claimed by Morocco and Algeria-backed Polisario Front, the armed group that engaged in brief war against Morocco decades ago. The territory, a former Spanish colony until 1975, has been mostly under Morocco's control since 1976.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351549,western-sahara-conflict-resume.html.