Thus, the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General has become persona non grata in Algiers and Tindouf. He had recommended, however, following his first round in the region, conducting negotiations for a just and lasting political solution to the Sahara conflict, mutually acceptable. It is noteworthy to say that the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, adopted in his last Security Council resolution on the Sahara, the proposals of his personal envoy.

Van Walsum had first toured the region last October, and held consultations with representatives of the Governments of Spain, France, Britain and the United States in Madrid, Paris, London and Washington. Meanwhile, the chairman of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs, Khallihenna Ould Errachid, said that all interlocutors expressed their support to the Moroccan proposal to grant autonomy to the southern provinces.  

Ould Errachid said that this project reflects Morocco’s desire to find a peaceful solution to this dispute and set up « real autonomy in the Sahara in line with the people’s historical demands ». He also said: «We have discussed with our Andalusian interlocutors the reasons that led to the emergence of this problem and the impasse reached by the United Nations, which found it impossible to hold a referendum and the need to reach a compromise».

On the other hand, Ould Errachid confirmed that the initiative of King Mohammed VI to grant autonomy to the region can be a model in the Arab world and Africa in finding solutions to the conflicts in Somalia and Darfur where tribalism is widespread. Ould Errachid expressed to his Spanish interlocutors the need to speed up a solution to this dispute, which would lead the region into tension likely to reach the whole Mediterranean region, particularly Spain.

He explained that armed conflicts and poverty in Africa push millions of people to migrate to Europe across regions controlled by «Polisario» in the south and on the edge of the Algerian borders and three other countries «where state control is difficult and there is no law nor order». Ould Errachid warned that this situation, in addition to various types of smuggling known in the region « where Polisario keep weapons», can turn the region into war that may attain all the region’s countries, including the countries of southern Europe.

News and events concerning Western Sahara issue / Corcas