Security Council renews mandate of UN mission for Western Sahara

Photo taken on Oct. 27, 2022 shows a UN Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York. The UN Security Council on Thursday adopted a resolution to renew the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) for another year, till Oct. 31, 2023. (Evan Schneider/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 27 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Thursday adopted a resolution to renew the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) for another year, till Oct. 31, 2023.

Resolution 2654 won the support of 13 of the 15 members of the Security Council. Kenya and Russian abstained from voting.

The resolution emphasizes the need to achieve a realistic, practicable, enduring and mutually acceptable political solution to the question of Western Sahara based on compromise.

It calls upon the parties to resume negotiations under the auspices of the UN secretary-general without preconditions and in good faith, and to demonstrate political will and work in an atmosphere propitious for dialogue in order to advance negotiations.

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 cease-fire was signed in 1991. MINURSO was deployed that year to monitor the cease-fire and to organize, if possible, a referendum on self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.