US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected Today in Rabat. Meetings with Moroccan officials are scheduled to take place along with discussions on key topics related to US-Moroccan cooperation and the Western Sahara dispute.
Kerry’s visit comes little before the next United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on the Western Sahara dispute. Last year, the United States pushed for a proposal to include human rights monitoring to the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), a peacekeeping operation established in the region since 1991 to monitor the ceasefire between Morocco and the Sahrawi-Polisario Front.
The proposal triggered angry reactions from Moroccan officials who saw there a setback to Rabat’s efforts to grant an autonomous status to the Sahrawis. As a result, the proposal was eventually dismissed and the satus quo was maintained. Nonetheless, it remains to be seen whether the US administration’s good relations with Morocco will continue to play in favor of Morocco in this conflict.
The Moroccan Times.
