Associated Press
The U.N. Security Council is calling for “a realistic, practicable and enduring solution” to the future of the disputed Western Sahara, with the pro-independence Polisario Front again demanding a U.N.-organized referendum and Morocco declaring “there will be no independence.”
The comments before and after the council approved a resolution extending the mandate of the U.N. mission in Western Sahara for a year on Wednesday reflected the huge gap between the opposing parties and their growing frustration at the failure to resolve one of Africa’s longest disputes.
The vote was 13-0 with South Africa and Russia calling the U.S.-drafted resolution unbalanced and abstaining.
Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975 and fought the Polisario Front until the United Nations brokered a cease-fire in 1991.
