New York (UN) – The UN Security Council extended, on Tuesday, the mandate of MINURSO for one year until 30 April 2013 and reiterated its call on Algeria to allow a registration by the UNHCR of the population in Tindouf camps.
In its resolution adopted unanimously, the Council reaffirmed the preeminence, soundness and credibility of the Moroccan proposal, presented on 11 April 2007 to the Secretary-General and welcomed “serious and credible Moroccan efforts to move the process forward towards resolution.”
The Council recalled “its endorsement of the recommendation in the report of 14 April 2008 that realism and a spirit of compromise by the parties are essential to achieve progress in negotiations.”
It welcomed the opening of National Council on Human Rights Commissions in Dakhla and Laayoune, and reiterated the request that the UNHCR maintain its consideration of a registration in the Tindouf camps, in Algeria.
Taking note of the four rounds of negotiations held under the auspices of the Secretary-General and the continued rounds of informal talks, and welcoming the progress made by the parties to enter into direct negotiations, the Council welcomed the progress made by the parties in discussing innovative negotiating approaches.
The Council called upon the parties to continue to show political will and work in an atmosphere propitious for dialogue in order to enter into a more intensive and substantive phase of negotiations, thus ensuring implementation of resolutions 1754 (2007), 1783 (2007), 1813 (2008), 1871 (2009), 1920 (2010) and 1979 (2011), and the success of negotiations, by continuing their discussion of the ideas in the Secretary-General’s report of April 2011.
It should be noted that these ideas figure among “innovative” proposals put forward by the Moroccan delegation during the latest rounds of negotiations to push the process forward.
The resolution called on the parties to cooperate fully with the UN and welcomed their commitment to continue the process of holding small, informal talks in preparation for a fifth round of negotiations.
In this regard, the Council affirmed its “strong support for the commitment of the Secretary-General and his Personal Envoy towards a solution to the question of the Sahara” and called for “an intensified pace of meetings and strengthening of contacts.”
It called anew on the parties to continue negotiations under the auspices of the Secretary-General, taking into account the efforts made since 2006 and subsequent developments with a view to achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution.
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