Representatives vote on a draft resolution to extend the mandate of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia for a year, till Oct. 31, 2024, during a UN Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, on Oct. 30, 2023. (Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Monday adopted two separate resolutions to renew the mandates of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and the UN Verification Mission in Colombia.
Resolution 2703 renews MINURSO's mandate for another year, till Oct. 31, 2024. The resolution won the support of 13 of the 15 members of the Security Council. Russia and Mozambique abstained.
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, and the importance of aligning the strategic focus of MINURSO and orienting resources of the United Nations to this end.
It calls on the parties to resume negotiations under the auspices of the UN secretary-general without preconditions and in good faith, with a view to achieving a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.
The resolution emphasizes the importance of a renewed commitment by the parties to advancing the political process in preparation for further negotiations, encourages the neighboring countries to contribute to this process, and stresses the importance of all concerned expanding on their positions in order to advance a solution.
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. The UN mission 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.
The Security Council on Monday also adopted Resolution 2704, which extends the mandate of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia for a year, till Oct. 31, 2024. ■
Representatives vote on a draft resolution to renew the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara for another year, till Oct. 31, 2024, during a UN Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York, on Oct. 30, 2023. (Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo/Handout via Xinhua)
