Polisario considers return to arms

06/12/2007

[Getty Images] Beissat

Although Western Sahara's Polisario Front would prefer a peaceful solution, it would consider a return to arms to speed up the resolution of the disputed territory's status, Reuters reported a Polisario representative as saying on Wednesday (December 5th). Mohamed Yeslem Beissat, ambassador of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic to Algeria, said the Polisario would debate its future strategy at a three-day congress scheduled to begin on December 14th.

According to Beissat the delegates would have to choose between proceeding with the UN-mediated talks and resuming armed struggle to speed up the process. He added that the Polisario would also discuss strategies to intensify diplomatic efforts and persuade other countries to put more pressure on Morocco.

The next round of UN-led negotiations between the Polisario Front and the Moroccan government will be held in Manhasset, New York from January 7th-9th, 2008. Previous talks on the 32-year-old dispute, held in August this year, rendered no breakthrough. Morocco proposed an autonomous statute for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty while the Polisario Front pushed for a referendum including the option of full independence.