UN set to vote on a resolution backing Morocco's plan for Western Sahara, in a major shift SAM METZ and FARNOUSH AMIRIOctober 31, 2025 at 11:45 PM 0 1 / 2United NationsWestern SaharaFILE A Sahrawi refugee woman stands at the door of her home in the Boujdour refugee camp, Algeria, on Oct. 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File) UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote Friday on a resolution backing Morocco's claim to the disputed Western Sahara, a departure from past wording that aligns with U.S. support for Morocco. If approved, the resolution before the U.N.
- - UN set to vote on a resolution backing Morocco's plan for Western Sahara, in a major shift
SAM METZ and FARNOUSH AMIRIOctober 31, 2025 at 11:45 PM
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1 / 2United Nations-Western SaharaFILE - A Sahrawi refugee woman stands at the door of her home in the Boujdour refugee camp, Algeria, on Oct. 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council is expected to vote Friday on a resolution backing Morocco's claim to the disputed Western Sahara, a departure from past wording that aligns with U.S. support for Morocco.
If approved, the resolution before the U.N.'s most powerful body would offer the strongest endorsement yet for Morocco's plan to keep sovereignty over the territory, which also has backing from most European Union members and a growing number of African allies.
It refers to Morocco's plan as the basis for negotiation and drops mention of a U.N.-backed referendum on self-determination for the people of Western Sahara that has support from neighboring Algeria as well as Russia and China.
The resolution says "genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty could constitute a most feasible solution."
If approved, the measure would renew the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara for another year, as it has for more than three decades. Prior extensions, however, haven't included a reference to Morocco and its allies' preferred outcome.
Western Sahara is a phosphate-rich stretch of coastal desert the size of Colorado that was under Spanish rule until 1975. It's claimed by both Morocco and Polisario Front, a pro-independence group that operates out of refugee camps in southwestern Algeria and claims to represent the Sahrawi people indigenous to the disputed territory.
Trump envoys reiterate support for Morocco
The vote is set to come weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff jolted the region by suggesting on CBS' "60 Minutes" that peace between Morocco and Algeria — Polisario's primary benefactor — could be reached within 60 days. The neighboring countries aren't at war but haven't had diplomatic relations for four years.
Massad Boulos, Trump's senior adviser for African affairs, reiterated U.S. support for Morocco's plan in an interview with Sky News Arabia this week.
The U.N. resolution calls on all parties involved to "seize this unprecedented opportunity for a lasting peace." Depending on progress, it asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to review the peacekeeping mission's mandate within six months.
The shift could unsettle a long-stalled process that for decades has eluded resolution, despite a U.N. peacekeeping mission designed to be temporary. Demonstrations have ensued in Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria this week, where people have vowed not to give up their fight for self-determination.
A lasting stalemate
Morocco controls nearly all of Western Sahara, except for a narrow strip known as the "free zone" that lies east of a Moroccan-built sand wall.
A 1991 ceasefire was meant to pave the way for a referendum on self-determination, but fighting over voter eligibility prevented it from taking place.
Over the years, Morocco has transformed the disputed territory, constructing a deepwater port and a 656-mile (1,055-kilometer) highway. State subsidies keep food and energy prices low, and the population has ballooned as Moroccans settle in cities such as Dakhla and Laayoune.
Polisario withdrew from the ceasefire in 2020 after clashes near a road Morocco was paving to Mauritania.
The group has since regularly reported military activity, while Morocco has mostly denied open conflict. The United Nations calls it "low-level hostilities."
In response to the draft resolution, Polisario said earlier this week that it wouldn't join any process aiming "to 'legitimize' Morocco's illegal military occupation," saying peace "can never be achieved by rewarding expansionism."
Morocco's Foreign Ministry didn't respond to questions before the vote.
Pressure builds as priorities shift
The conflict is the driving force in North African diplomacy. Morocco sees support for its autonomy plan as a benchmark for how it gauges its allies.
Last October, U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura suggested partitioning Western Sahara, a proposal neither side accepted. He urged Morocco to clarify what autonomy would entail and warned a lack of progress might raise questions about the United Nations' role and "whether there is space and willingness for us to still be useful."
The push to reassess the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara comes as the United States slashes funding for U.N. programs and agencies, including peacekeeping.
U.S. officials are taking an a la carte approach to funding, picking which operations and agencies they believe align with Trump's agenda and which no longer serve U.S. interests. They argue that the U.N.'s budget and agencies are bloated. They pledge to halt new contributions pending a review of every U.N. agency and program.
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Metz reported from Rabat, Morocco.
Source: "AOL Breaking"
Source: Breaking
Published: October 31, 2025 at 05:54PM on Source: CUSTOS MAG
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