UN Security Council fails to renew MINURSO mandate after Russian veto

The United Nations Security Council did not renew the MINURSO mandate on Friday after Russia vetoed a US draft and a rival Russian text also failed to pass.
Algeria's UN ambassador Amar Bendjama addressed the Council, thanking Russia for tabling a renewal text and questioning US impartiality in drafting the earlier proposal. He argued the US draft treated negotiations as finished before they began and said self‑determination cannot be confined to an autonomy framework.
Bendjama warned that no occupying power can be granted sovereignty it does not legally hold, describing the current situation as a fait accompli resulting from an indecent transaction that harms Palestinians. He cited the 2020 Morocco‑Israel normalization, which was exchanged for US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
He cautioned that any initiative affecting Sahrawi refugee camps would impose a triple penalty of prolonged suffering, food‑ration cuts and relocation presented as a lasting solution. Morocco controls most of Western Sahara and maintains its autonomy proposal as the only realistic basis for settlement, while the UN still lists the territory as a non‑self‑governing area.
The International Court of Justice ruled in 1975 that no sovereignty tie linked Western Sahara to Morocco. With the mandate lapsed, the Council may revisit the file and determine MINURSO's future presence on the ground.
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