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The absence of a quick political settlement to the Western Sahara conflict increases the risk of a military escalation in the whole region of the Sahel Sahara. This is the statement made last Tuesday by the personal envoy of the UN Secretary General, Christopher Ross. In an interview with the United Nations TV, Christopher Ross has warned that the absence of a political solution may lead to a “resumption of military hostilities between the parties” in the conflict. The statut quo may conduct, according to Ross, to a “possible revolt of the Sahrawi populations” in Tindouf camps, increasing thus the risk of “recruitment of young frustrated and jobless Sahrawis, by terrorists or criminal groups”.
The solution to the Sahara issue has an « urgent aspect », has he insisted, stating that it is “unacceptable that the Sahrawi refugees be taken as hostages and live in miserable conditions because of a political conflict which main concerned parties are engaged in an endless struggle at all levels”. Christopher Ross who has visited many times Tindouf refugees camps, in the South-West of Algeria, has stated that “few things have changed” since 1970. This conflict has too much lasted, supports the UN official, reminding that each of the two parties continues sticking to its position while the Security Council “encourages the parties to negotiate while abstaining from imposing a solution”.

New faces are expected at the 9th round of informal negotiations on the Sahara, announced for the beginning of February in Manhasset (United States). Even if the exact date is not yet revealed, the Moroccan delegation, with the last political changes following on the anticipated legislative elections of last November, would be led by the new Foreign Affairs Minister, the PJDst Saâd Eddine El Othmani.  Resuming of negotiations was announced yesterday Tuesday in New-York, by the UN vice-spokesman, Vannina Maestracci. Without going into details, she has declared “the next series of informal negotiations would take place beginning of February in the Greentree property, in the outskirts of New York”. On the Moroccan side, there are some changes, on the one hand, the government, with its new leadership after the election of November 2011, and on the other hand, there is also the nomination as Adviser to the King of Saâd Eddine El Othmani’s predecessor, Taieb Fassi Fihri, who used to preside over the Moroccan delegation during the previous rounds.

The Polisario leaders who were elected by a large majority at the 13th Congress of their movement at Tifariti, are trapped by their internal opponents as well as those settling abroad. The present Polisario leadership reflects “the state of mind of a Mafioso dictatorship commanding since always and refusing any change”, has commented the coordinator of the “Khat Echahid” (the martyr line)  movement, Mahjoub Ould Saleck. At the end of this meeting, the Polisario dissident in Nouakchott, Ould Saleck has qualified of “ridiculous” the results of the 13th Congress of the Polisario which has taken place in last December and which has witnessed the “re-election of Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz with 96,99% of the votes of the conference delegates”. The opponent whose worlds were reported Wednesday by the newspaper “Le quotidien de Nouakchott” , has explained that the results of this congress “denote of the stubbornness of few leaders whose management of the Sahrawi issue remains obscene, using the populations in the camps as a money for exchange”. “It is as if this mafia was not of this world with all the political upheavals which happened with the Arab spring”, he declared, stating that the Sahrawi populations in Tindouf camps “are disillusioned by so much political thoughtlessness”.

Morocco is now a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. Elected on 21st October 2011, at the first tour and with an overwhelming majority (151 votes while the required are only 129) for a two-years mandate, Morocco occupies officially since January the 1st , its seat on the side of the five permanent member countries and nine other non-permanent members of the Security Council. The Moroccan delegation has certainly too much to do especially when it concerns defending the Moroccan Sahara file, which sovereignty is contested by the Polisario Front enjoying an unconditional support from the Algerian neighbour and with a minor degree from other Latino-American countries like Cuba and African ones like South Africa. This country which itself occupies a non-permanent seat in the Security Council, has always given trouble to Morocco, whenever the debate concerns the future of the Southern provinces.

The re-election of Mohamed Abdelaziz at the head of the Polisario for the 11th time without interruption since 1976, was considered to be the result of a set-up worthy of Stalinian regime. With more than 35 years as secretary general of a movement which struggles against Morocco, from Algeria, to take advantage of an almost dynastic reign. Abdelaziz Marrakchi, a nickname he carries because of his being from Marrakech, where he was born in August 1947 and where he has studied till secondary school before leaving for Rabat, was elected with 96% of the vote of the conference delegates, according to the Algerian press agency. A figure that makes startle at the time when the Polisario leadership is facing a persistent revolt in Tindouf camps. The young Sahrawis of Tindouf are worn out because of what they believe to be a catastrophic management of the Western Sahara issue by the Polisario leaders. Many dissidents, among whom some groups defending publicly the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara, have talked about the pressure put by the Polisario leadership to exclude the opponents from this Congress.