afrol News, 18 November - The Special Representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan for Western Sahara, Alvaro de Soto, is holding talks today in Algeria as he continues his initial tour of the region. He has already held talks with Moroccan and Sahrawi authorities.

According to a UN spokesman, Mr de Soto met the Algerian delegate for Foreign Affairs, Abdelkader Messahel, this morning in the capital, Algiers, during the third leg of his consultations with the parties and neighbouring governments involved in the dispute over Western Sahara.

A peace plan between Morocco and the Sahrawi liberation movement Polisario Front is now being considered by all the parties involved. It was formulated by Mr Annan's Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, James Baker, a former US Secretary of State.

Meeting with Minister Messahel, Mr de Soto again recommended "the compromise plan" designed by Mr Baker, which has been accepted by the Sahrawis but not by the Moroccans. Mr Messahel answered by repeating Algiers' well-known position on the question of the Western Sahara, "a position based on the right of self-determination for the Sahrawi people."

Mr de Soto held consultations last week with Moroccan officials in Rabat, and spoke to the leadership of Polisario Front in the Rabouni refugee camp on Sunday. Next week he is expected to travel to the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, for the final leg of his tour.

In the Sahrawi camps, Mr de Soto had emphasised that he was now making "contact with the parties to the dispute, but as well to Algeria and to Mauritania," according to the Sahrawi press agency SPS. The UN representative thus clearly contradicted Moroccan views that Algeria is a party to the dispute.

Mr de Soto further had delivered a letter from Mr Annan to Mohamed Abdelaziz, Polisario leader and Sahrawi President, expressing his satisfaction over the Sahrawi cooperation with the UN. Mr Annan further stressed that the UN now had to await the delayed answer from Morocco, regarding the current peace plan.

SPS had also noted other "sympathetic" gestures from the new UN representative while he was on his first-ever visit. In the Smara refugee camp, where he was received by the local population, the UN representative had told the Sahrawis that he understood "your sentiments caused by the long delay, as well as your deception."

Mr de Soto was appointed to this central post on 5 August this year, replacing the American William Swing. He was seen as a person of heavier weight that Mr Swing, indicating an enhanced UN desire to find a solution to the Western Sahara deadlock that has lasted for more than 25 years.

By staff writer

© afrol News

Related pages and feature

Current afrol News Top Stories