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Morocco Supports de Mistura as UN Envoy for Western Sahara

Staffan de Mistura. (AFP)
Staffan de Mistura. (AFP)
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Morocco Supports de Mistura as UN Envoy for Western Sahara

Staffan de Mistura. (AFP)
Staffan de Mistura. (AFP)

Morocco has agreed to the nomination of former United Nations Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura as the Secretary-General’s representative on the disputed Western Sahara, Rabat’s UN ambassador said in comments published Wednesday.

“Morocco has been consulted beforehand about this appointment and has already notified (UN chief) Antonio Guterres of its approval,” Omar Hilale said in an interview carried by state news agency MAP.

He said consultations were still underway but the Italian-Swedish diplomat’s appointment would be made public “in the upcoming days, after the endorsement of Security Council members”.

The Western Sahara dispute pits Morocco, which sees the former Spanish colony as an integral part of its territory, against the armed Polisario independence movement, long backed by Algeria.

The sparsely-populated desert territory boasts significant phosphate resources and a long Atlantic coastline with access to rich fishing waters.

UN-led talks between the three parties plus Mauritania have been stalled since the 2019 resignation of the previous UN envoy, German diplomat Horst Kohler, for health reasons.

Guterres has put forward a dozen names for the role but been unable to reach a consensus with all sides.

But the Polisario previously said it would accept the nomination of de Mistura, who has decades of diplomatic experience including as a UN envoy in Syria.

Hilale said the diplomat would “be able to count on Morocco’s unfailing cooperation and support, to implement his mediation for the settlement of this regional dispute.”

Last year the administration of then-US president Donald Trump recognized Rabat’s sovereignty over Western Sahara as a quid pro quo for Morocco normalizing ties with Israel.

Since a ceasefire with the Polisario in 1991, Morocco has controlled around 80 percent of the Western Sahara, where it has poured investment into development projects.

The Polisario continues to call for a referendum on self-determination, according to the 1991 UN-backed ceasefire deal.

Tensions rose sharply in November when Morocco sent troops into a buffer zone to reopen the only road leading from Morocco to Mauritania and the rest of West Africa, after the separatists had blocked it the previous month.

The Polisario responded by declaring the 1991 UN-backed ceasefire null and void.

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Israeli Military Orders Evacuation of Most of Gaza’s Southern City of Rafah

Palestinians set out to Khan Younis with their belongings, from Rafah's Tel al-Sultan area after it was encircled by Israeli forces on March 23, 2025. (AFP)
Palestinians set out to Khan Younis with their belongings, from Rafah's Tel al-Sultan area after it was encircled by Israeli forces on March 23, 2025. (AFP)
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Israeli Military Orders Evacuation of Most of Gaza’s Southern City of Rafah

Palestinians set out to Khan Younis with their belongings, from Rafah's Tel al-Sultan area after it was encircled by Israeli forces on March 23, 2025. (AFP)
Palestinians set out to Khan Younis with their belongings, from Rafah's Tel al-Sultan area after it was encircled by Israeli forces on March 23, 2025. (AFP)

The Israeli military on Monday issued sweeping evacuation orders covering most of Rafah, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation in the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip.

Israel ended its ceasefire with the Hamas group and renewed its air and ground war earlier this month. At the beginning of March, it cut off all supplies of food, fuel, medicine and humanitarian aid to the territory's roughly 2 million Palestinians to pressure Hamas to accept changes to the truce agreement.

The evacuation orders appeared to cover nearly all of the city and nearby areas. The military ordered Palestinians to head to Muwasi, a sprawl of squalid tent camps along the coast. The orders came during Eid al-Fitr, a normally festive Muslim holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Israel launched a major operation in Rafah, on the border with Egypt, last May, leaving large parts of it in ruins. The military seized a strategic corridor along the border as well as the Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza's only gateway to the outside world that was not controlled by Israel.

Israel was supposed to withdraw from the corridor under the ceasefire it signed with Hamas in January under US pressure, but it later refused to, citing the need to prevent weapons smuggling.

Israel has vowed to intensify its military operations until Hamas releases the remaining 59 hostages it holds — 24 of whom are believed to be alive. Israel has also demanded that Hamas disarm and leave the territory, conditions that were not included in the ceasefire agreement and which Hamas has rejected.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would take charge of security in Gaza after the war and implement US President Donald Trump's proposal to resettle Gaza's population in other countries, describing it as “voluntary emigration.”

That plan has been universally rejected by Palestinians, who view it as forcible expulsion from their homeland, and human rights experts say it would likely violate international law.

Hamas, meanwhile, has insisted on implementing the signed agreement, which called for the remainder of the hostages to be released in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli pullout. Negotiations over those parts of the agreement were supposed to have begun in February but only preliminary talks have been held.

The war began when Hamas-led fighters stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, rampaging through army bases and farming communities and killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The gunmen took another 251 people hostage, most of whom have since been released in ceasefires or other deals.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many were civilians or combatants. At its height, the war had displaced some 90% of Gaza's population, with many fleeing multiple times.

Large areas of Gaza have been completely destroyed, and it's unclear how or when anything will be rebuilt.