Russia and the United States have vetoed rival resolutions on the Western Sahara peacekeeping mission, leaving its future uncertain a day before its mandate is due to expire.
The standoff at the UN Security Council threatens the continuation of MINURSO, a mission that has been renewed for decades as part of efforts to resolve the dispute between Morocco and the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.
Morocco controls most of Western Sahara, while the Polisario Front seeks an independent state. Morocco’s royal palace welcomed the failure to renew the mandate and said the mission’s personnel and equipment should leave the territory in the coming days, while insisting it remained committed to the ceasefire.
Western Sahara peacekeeping mission faces expiry
The United States had proposed extending MINURSO for a further year while making Morocco’s autonomy plan the sole basis for negotiations. The draft also proposed removing the reference to a referendum from the mission’s name and renaming it the United Nations Mission in Western Sahara, or MINUSO.
Russia vetoed the American resolution on Friday. The US then blocked a Russian draft that would have extended the mandate without endorsing the changes sought by Washington.
Unless the council reaches a last-minute agreement, the mission’s mandate will expire on Saturday. MINURSO was established under a UN-brokered ceasefire and tasked with organising a referendum, although no vote has taken place.
US Ambassador Michael Waltz said disagreements over voter eligibility had prevented a referendum from being held.
“UN officials have been telling us this reality for 30 years,” he said. “Unfortunately, some members of this council have used their veto to preserve the letter ‘R’ for referendum in the mission’s name, even though the United Nations has not been preparing to hold such a vote for decades.”
France and Britain, along with eight non-permanent council members, supported the US resolution and Morocco’s autonomy proposal. China, Somalia and Pakistan abstained.
Russia’s UN envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, said the American draft went too far in backing Morocco’s position on the disputed territory.
“We stress the fact that the Security Council cannot automatically predetermine matters relating to sovereignty,” he said. “The Security Council must not give a blessing to such a one-sided approach. Therefore we were compelled to block the adoption of the draft.”
Mr Nebenzia described the subsequent US veto of the Russian proposal as “the political murder of the mission”. Polisario representative Sidi Omar thanked Russia, saying the American resolution would have “torpedoed the foundations of the UN peace process”.
MINURSO has 155 military personnel and is due to cost 62 million US dollars in the financial year that began in June 2026, according to a report by the UN Secretary-General.
Oxfam warned that the mission’s loss could put refugees at risk. Hostilities have continued at low levels since the Polisario Front said in November 2020 that it was resuming “armed struggle”.
Most Sahrawis live in Morocco-ruled Western Sahara, while tens of thousands are estimated to be in Polisario-run refugee camps in Algeria. The rejected US resolution had called for a census of those refugees.
