Janice R. Andrews
On Tuesday, a group of US military personnel from the US Embassy in Rabat went to Laayoune to meet the offices of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). The group of politicians and military officials had important talks with Alexander Ivanko, who is in charge of MINURSO and is the Special Representative for the Sahara for the UN Secretary-General.
The talks were mostly about MINURSO’s work, especially its part in keeping an eye on the ceasefire deal that the UN arranged in 1991. The group also met with General Fakhr al-Ihssan, who is in charge of MINURSO’s armed forces, to talk about the problems that are making it harder to keep the peace in the region, especially since the Polisario Front pulled out of the ceasefire in November 2020.
Recent UN reports on the Sahara dispute make it clear that the Polisario Front is trying to make it hard for MINURSO to do its job east of the defence wall. This was an important part of the visit. The goal of the delegation’s trip was to learn more about these problems and show stronger support for MINURSO’s task to keep the peace.
This is the second time that a group from the US Embassy has visited MINURSO’s offices. The first time was in December, when Colonel Seward Matwick Emerson and First Lieutenant Fischer Karl led the group. The US’s continued involvement shows its dedication to backing peace efforts in the area, even though tensions are rising.
