The UN Security Council (UNSC) will debate the Sahara issue on April 20, said here Wednesday, Britain's UN ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, the Council's president this month.


Presenting the body's monthly working schedule, Parry noted that UN Secretary General report on the Sahara will be submitted to UNSC members on April 16.

He also said that the Security Council is due to issue a resolution on the renewal of the Minurso task in the Sahara on April 27.

The MINURSO is the French acronym for the United Nations Mission for the referendum in Western Sahara. It was deployed in September 1991, in the Moroccan Southern provinces known as the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid Accord and disputed by the Algeria-backed separatists "Polisario". Its mission is due to expire on April 30.

In a bid to solve the dispute for good, Morocco has crafted a plan to grant substantial autonomy under its sovereignty, and has engaged, for about a month now, an active diplomatic action to explain the proposal to world capitals.