Early Wednesday, The UN Security Council had finally voted unanimously the 1813 resolution on Western Sahara with an unexpected new ally of Morocco: the Russian Federation.The Russian have threatened to seize the Council for a technical vote on the amendment introduced by Costa Rica. This last, sent off for a scout around by Algeria and South Africa, grab the attention of the permanent representatives already favorable to the Moroccan proposal in particular the Spanish ambassador.
The Russian spin, according to high ranked sources at the United Nations is due to the recurring tensions with Algeria which reached their paroxysm with the cancellation of the fighter’s contract and also the failure to bring closer the Gazprom giant to the Algerian Sonatrach.
The Algerian representative at the United Nations, Youcef Yousfi used all means and no returned calls to the Russian representative before deciding to give him a “surprise” visit, trying to convince him to support the Costa Rica amendment.
The permanent representative of South Africa and President of the April session council, Dumisani S. Kumalo has tried to introduce some changes in favor of the Polisario Front on the motion of the Sahara resolution presented by France, the United States and Russia. The attempts of the ebullient diplomat did not succeed, the United States insisting strongly that the concept of “realism”, introduced a week before by the personal Envoy of the UN Secretary General for Sahara Peter Van Walsum should be included in the resolution.
On his last day as a president and fearing split within the council, the representative of South Africa choose to show his dissension at the end of the session, just in front of the cameras…
