Middle East Monitor
The separatist Polisario Front is willing to cooperate with the United Nations to restart the peace process in the Sahara and overcome the tensions in the Guergarat buffer zone, according to the Algerian news agency APS.
The change of position is mainly motivated by the will of the Polisario Front and its sponsors to show their action plan before the publication of the first report of Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, scheduled for 7 April.
Read: Algerian president reiterates support for Polisario Front
The document will expose the manoeuvres of the group in the buffer zone in which truck drivers importing goods are usually hindered. Acts like this by the separatist entity continue despite an alert issued by the UN secretary-general in a telephone interview with King Mohammed VI in February where Guterres insisted that the commercial activities should not be blocked in the region.
Morocco announced the next day its “unilateral withdrawal of the zone”. The Polisario Front has so far defied the criticisms of international organisations such as the European Union denouncing the diversion of humanitarian aid.
The separatist group is fighting for the self-determination of the Sahrawi people in the contested Western Sahara which Morocco believes to be part of its kingdom. The Polisario Front is backed by Algeria which supports the independence of Western Sahara from Morocco.
