UN Security Council backs Moroccan plan for disputed Western Sahara
The resolution boycotted by Algeria says the Moroccan plan "could constitute a most feasible solution" to the conflict.
The United Nations Security Council on Friday approved a resolution endorsing a Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, as the Trump administration seeks to revive talks aimed at ending the decades-old territorial dispute.
The resolution, drafted by the United States, passed with a vote of 11 in favor and three abstentions. Algeria, a nonpermanent Security Council member that supports Western Sahara's Polisario Front resistance group, boycotted the vote.
Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony in northwestern Africa that was annexed by Morocco in 1975. The Polisario Front fought a 16-year war of independence against Morocco that ended with a 1991 UN-brokered ceasefire and the promise of a referendum on self-determination.
Following years of disputes over the proposed referendum’s voter eligibility, Morocco in 2007 put forward a plan that would give Western Sahara limited autonomy while keeping it under Moroccan sovereignty.
