Briefing Paper

2019 Secretary-General Report on Sahara: What’s New – ‘Neighbouring States as Parties’ in Roundtable

Few weeks ago, I gained the chance of reading the UN Security Council resolution 2468 of 30 April on MINURSO, and was surprised by the frequently repeated expression of “Morocco, the Frente Polisario, Algeria, and Mauritania”, instead of the previous “all parties and neighbours”. Besides, it was reported that the US representative twice referred to “Morocco, the Frente Polisario, Algeria, and Mauritania” in his short remark in the Security Council meeting. Shortly after that, I could find an insightful and clear-cut comment on the resolution. “While in resolution 2440 the Council makes a distinction between the parties and neighbouring states, the new resolution removes the distinction and names the four parties on equal footing”. Almost coincidentally, one of the most banal and worn-out old sayings flashed across my mind unsurprisingly,
“Rome was not built in a day”.