MINURSO mandate lapses after US and Russia veto each other at UN Security Council

Competing vetoes by the United States and Russia have ended the UN Security Council's ability to renew MINURSO, the Western Sahara peacekeeping mission established in 1991, with the mandate expiring the day after the failed votes.

Washington tabled a draft resolution that would have extended the mission for one year, made Morocco's autonomy plan the sole basis for negotiations, cut the mission's military component, and rebranded the force from MINURSO to MINUSO — dropping the 'R' that refers to a referendum on self-determination. Eleven of the fifteen Council members voted in favour; Russia vetoed it.

Russia's permanent representative, Vassily Nebenzia, said the Council "cannot automatically pre-determine matters relating to sovereignty" and that it "must not give a blessing to such a one-sided approach."

The US then vetoed a Russian counter-draft that would have renewed the mandate on unchanged terms. US representative Michael Waltz said some Council members had used their veto to preserve the referendum reference, noting that "the United Nations has not been preparing to hold such a vote" for decades.

Morocco, which regards Western Sahara as its territory, welcomed the lapse and called for the issue to be removed from the Security Council's agenda entirely. The Polisario Front's UN representative, Sidi Omar, thanked Russia for blocking the US text, saying it would have undermined Sahrawi self-determination rights.

MINURSO was created to oversee a ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario Front, which is backed by Algeria and seeks an independent Sahrawi state.