Peter Van Walsum Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary General for Sahara stated yesterday before the15-member United Nations Security Council that «An independent Western Sahara is not an attainable goal” and taking into account the political reality and international legality of the conflict should be prevalent for its resolution. The assessment of Peter Van Walsum angered the representatives of South Africa, important sponsor of the Polisario Front and Algeria. Indeed, it is the first time that the Personal Envoy of the United Nations for Sahara expresses in a completely clear way and with a realistic view what could constitute an exit to the crisis, supporting the Moroccan proposal based on large autonomy for the Western Sahara.
Van Walsum also made an allusion to the Algerian direct involvement in the conflict, blaming the persistence of the statelmate on the fact that several countries deem “quite comfortable” the status-quo as it “saves them the responsibility of making difficult choices, such as taking Algeria’s or Morocco’s side.”
Now all observers of the Sahara case are scrutinizing the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon reaction. If he validates Peter Van Walsum assessment, it would be a whole new ball game …
