Decades-long UN mission ends as Russia criticizes US stance
The UN’s peacekeeping mission in the disputed territory of Western Sahara has ended after 35 years following a Security Council standoff over a US proposal that Russia said would deny the region’s people the right to decide their future.
The mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) expired on October 31. Moscow expressed regret over the outcome, having vetoed Washington’s proposed overhaul and unsuccessfully sought an extension of the existing mandate.
“Russia was unable to support the intention of depriving Western Sahrawis of the right to vote,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday, accusing Washington of trying to “artificially accelerate the settlement process.”
Morocco governs most of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony it annexed in 1975 following Spain’s decision to withdraw. The Algeria-backed Polisario Front seeks independence for the territory.
MINURSO was established alongside a UN-brokered ceasefire in 1991 to organize a referendum offering independence or integration with Morocco. Disputes over voter eligibility prevented the vote, and Polisario resumed hostilities in 2020.
The US draft would have extended the mission for a year, removed the referendum reference from its name, and made Morocco’s plan for autonomy under its sovereignty the sole negotiating basis. It received 11 votes in favor. Russia’s proposal to preserve the existing mandate secured only three, with Washington opposed and 11 members abstaining.
During Friday’s Security Council meeting, Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the council “cannot automatically predetermine issues of sovereignty,” arguing that Washington’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara undermined its impartiality.
Washington recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in 2020 under President Donald Trump as part of a deal involving Rabat’s normalization of relations with Israel.
US Ambassador Mike Waltz defended changing a mission whose referendum had never materialized. “We will not lend our vote to business as usual,” he said. The UK and France criticized Russia’s veto.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said Rabat had anticipated Moscow’s opposition and made no attempt to change it. “We have not gone back 35 years; we have turned the page,” he told broadcaster 2M on Saturday, according to Morocco World News. He said Morocco remained committed to the ceasefire. The Royal Cabinet welcomed the outcome and called for the territory’s removal from the council’s agenda.
Algeria, which supports independence for Western Sahara, said it deeply regretted the non-renewal, blaming the US draft’s “excessive bias” toward Morocco. Its Foreign Ministry said making Morocco’s autonomy plan the sole basis for negotiations “emptied the right to self-determination of its substance.”
Polisario representative Sidi Omar thanked Russia for blocking a text he said would “torpedo the foundations of the UN peace process,” Reuters reported. In a separate statement on Sunday, the movement said Morocco and its allies bore “full responsibility” for weakening MINURSO’s mandate and for any consequences arising from the mission’s closure.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of escalating hostilities on Sunday and said the mission’s departure did not extinguish the Sahrawis’ right to self-determination.
