LONDON – The British news outlet Middle East Eye highlighted the visit of Sahrawi Foreign Minister Mohamed Yeslem Beisat to the United Kingdom and his talks with UK Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Hamish Falconer, on the latest developments regarding the United Nations–led peace process in the occupied Western Sahara.
According to Middle East Eye, the meeting between the Sahrawi delegation and the British minister in London took place “amid increasing international efforts to address the Western Sahara conflict.”
The outlet noted that Beisat, who heads the delegation, is the foreign minister of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) — a member of the African Union and recognised by more than 40 countries — and is the most senior Polisario Front official to have been invited for official talks by the British government.
The report also provided background on the Western Sahara dispute, which the United Nations designates as a non-self-governing territory. It recalled that a 1991 ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario Front was meant to pave the way for a self-determination referendum for the Sahrawi people, which has yet to take place. The UN does not recognise Morocco’s claimed sovereignty over the territory.
Commenting on Morocco’s push to entrench its control of Western Sahara through what it calls an “autonomy plan,” Beisat told the outlet: “The Moroccan proposal is 17 years old. I don’t know how someone can take from the fridge a rotten product and try to sell it as a very fresh, healthy product.”
Beisat said he informed Falconer last Tuesday that “the Polisario Front is very open to working with the United Kingdom to find a settlement based on international legality,” and that the British minister affirmed that “self-determination is a very important principle for the United Kingdom.”
Middle East Eye also cited Riccardo Fabiani, North Africa Project Director at the International Crisis Group, who said “conditions are ripe for the United Kingdom to play a constructive role” in the Western Sahara file, as it “can be both a mediator and facilitator to prepare the ground for the UN envoy to try to resume negotiations” between Morocco and the Polisario Front.
