West Seeks End to Sahara Region Impasse

UNITED NATIONS -- The United States, Britain and France called for an end to the impasse between Morocco and rebels over the Western Sahara, after joining in a unanimous U.N. Security Council vote Tuesday to extend the U.N. mission in the vast mineral-rich territory.

After 15 years and more than $600 million, the U.N. has been unable to resolve the standoff between Polisario Front rebels seeking independence for Western Sahara and the Moroccan government which refuses to give up sovereignty and instead has offered the region autonomy.

While the council voted to extend the U.N. mission, key members made clear they want progress in ending the stalemate before the new six-month mandate for the 225-member U.N. mission expires on April 30, 2007.

William Brencick, a senior U.S. diplomat, said the United States voted in favor of the extension on the understanding that Morocco, Algeria and the Polisario will "move beyond rhetoric to the serious work needed for a resolution of this conflict."

"The United States remains concerned that the Western Sahara conflict has impeded regional integration and development for the last 30 years," he said. "A lasting resolution is now long overdue."

Morocco and Mauritania split Western Sahara after its Spanish colonizers left the territory in 1975. Full-scale war broke out the following year, and Morocco took over the whole of Western Sahara after Mauritania pulled out in 1979.

The fighting, which pitted 15,000 Polisario guerrillas against Morocco's U.S.-equipped army, ended in 1991 with a U.N.-negotiated cease-fire that called for a referendum on the region's future. But the vote has never happened.

The United States calls for the parties to compromise and show flexibility, and urges Morocco "to move quickly to fulfill its many promises to table a comprehensive and credible autonomy proposal for the Western Sahara" _ and to engage seriously with all people in the territory including the Polisario, Brencick said.

In a letter to the president of the Security Council on Tuesday, the Polisario Front's U.N. representative Ahmed Boukhari welcomed the council's commitment to the right of the people of Western Sahara to self-determination. But he expressed regret that the resolution did not reflect "a legitimate and justified concern regarding the violation of human rights in Western Sahara by Morocco."