UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese UN envoy on Wednesday called on the members of the Security Council to hold thorough consultation on future mandate renewals of the UN mission in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
Wu Haitao, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, voiced the hope in his explanatory remarks after the 15 council members voted on a draft resolution to renew the mandate for a year, till Oct. 31, 2020.
The resolution was adopted in a 13-0 vote, with Russia and South Africa abstaining.
The Russian delegate pointed to "misguided attempts" to "change previously agreed upon approaches" inscribed in Security Council resolutions extending the mandates, which "undermine the impartial and unbiased approach of council.
A 12-month mandate was the norm until 2018, when the United States pushed for a six-month mandate to increase pressure on the parties to work towards a peaceful solution to the Western Sahara question.
No change occurred in the political process during this past six-month mandate. The United States, penholder of Resolution 2494, resumed yearly renewal in drafting the document.
Wu said more thorough consultation is needed for future MINURSO mandate renewals to achieve more balanced text and unanimous approval.
He also expressed appreciation for Former Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General Horst Kohler, who had convened two roundtables since December 2018 with Morocco, the Polisario Front, Algeria, and Mauritania, first such meetings since 2012.
He called for earlier appointment of Kohler's successor so as to resume the roundtables and push forward the Western Sahara political process.
Wednesday resolution emphasized the need to achieve "a realistic, practicable and enduring political solution to the question of Western Sahara based compromise."
Western Sahara was partitioned between Morocco and Mauritania at the end of Spain's colonial rule in 1976. When Mauritania, under pressure from Polisario guerrillas, abandoned all claims to its portion in August 1979, Morocco moved to occupy that sector and has since asserted administrative control over the whole territory. Fighting broke out between Morocco and the Polisario Front, which is fighting for the independence of Western Sahara.
A ceasefire was signed in 1991. MINURSO was deployed that year to monitor the ceasefire and to organize, if possible, a referendum on self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.
The UN secretary-general's latest report on Western Sahara, published on Oct. 2, characterized the current situation in the territory as "relatively calm despite some uncertainty."
