Manhasset (New York’s outskirts) – The Moroccan delegation to the 9th round of the UN-led informal talks on the Sahara (March 11-13) arrived on Sunday in Manhasset.
Led by Foreign Minister Saad Dine El Otmani, the Moroccan delegation, is composed of Director General of intelligence agency (DGED) Mohamed Yassine Mansouri and Secretary General of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS) Maouelanin Khalihanna Maouelainin, it said.
The talks, opened in August 2009 in Austria, to prepare the ground for the 5th round of formal negotiations aiming at finding a lasting political solution to the regional dispute over the Sahara.
During this new set of informal talks, the participating delegations of Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the polisario will examine innovative approaches relating to governance, environment and natural resources, the UN Secretary General said in his April report which was submitted to the Security Council.
The eight previous rounds were held successively in August 2009 in the Austrian locality of Durnstein (near Vienna), in February 2010 in Armonk (near New York), in November, December and January in Manhasset, in March 2011 Malta and in June, July 2001 in Manhasset.
The informal talks convened by the UN Secretary General Personal Envoy are part of implementing the Security Council resolutions 1813 (2008), 1871 (2009), 1920 (2010) and 1979 (2011), which call on the parties to enter into a more intensive and substantive phase of negotiations.
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