Algiers, June 24, 2018 (SPS) – Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdelkader Messahel received Saturday, in Algiers, UN Secretary General’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara Horst Kohler who is on a diplomatic tour to the region to relaunch the negotiation process between the Polisario Front and Morocco, at standstill since 2012.
This second visit of Kohler to Algeria and the region, which includes several stages (the Sahrawi refugee camps, the territories of occupied Western Sahara, Morocco and Mauritania), takes place within the framework of the implementation of the UN resolution adopted on 17 April by the UN Security Council, calling on the parties to the conflict (Morocco and the Polisario Front) to resume direct negotiations “in good faith and without prerequisites.”
Kohler’s visit to Algeria comes to implement the recommendations of the same UN resolution (14-24) which invites neighboring countries, notably Algeria and Mauritania to contribute, as observers, to the relaunch of the political process.
Kohler made in October 2017 his first tour to the region to relaunch negotiations between the two sides to the conflict.
During his first briefing at the Security Council, held in March, former German president clearly defined his mandate as UN Secretary General’s Personal Envoy which consists in “reaching a path for the future” on the basis of a solution guaranteeing the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination.
Kohler explained, during this information meeting, his vision for peace process and underlined that his objective was to relaunch, this year, direct negotiations between the two parties to the conflict, Morocco and the Polisario Front.
Kohler, who affirmed “his willingness” to broaden discussions to include issues relating to the situation of the Sahrawi people in the occupied territories, said that he plans to visit the city of occupied Laayoune to meet them on the spot. (SPS)
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