20.500.12592/hmmkbp
Question of Western Sahara : report of the Secretary-General
18 July 2003
Summary
It also requested the Secretary-General to provide a report on the situation by 19 May 2003, as proposed in his letter to the President of the Security Council of 19 March 2003 (S/2003/341), including the views of the parties to the proposal that was presented to them by his Personal Envoy in January 2003. [...] In his report to the Security Council (S/2003/565), the Secretary-General added that, owing to the parties’ incompatible positions with respect to the possibility of negotiating changes in the draft framework agreement, which had been favoured by Morocco, or the proposal to divide the Territory, which had been favoured by Algeria and the Frente POLISARIO, in his report of February 2002 (S/2002/178 [...] Under that option, in the event that the parties were unwilling or unable to agree upon a division of the Territory by 1 November 2002, the Personal Envoy would have been asked to show to the parties a proposal for division of the Territory that would also have been submitted to the Security Council. [...] Assessing the parties’ responses, the Secretary-General had stated that the main objection of Morocco to the peace plan seemed to be that in the referendum to determine the final status of Western Sahara, one of the ballot choices was independence. [...] The Secretary-General informed the Security Council that the chief objection of the Frente POLISARIO to the peace plan seemed to be that it was not the settlement plan.
