UN security council extends Sahara mission for two months

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday agreed to extend the mandate of the UN Mission in the Sahara for an additional two months, expiring next July 31.

Under resolution 1301 adopted by 12 votes, one against and two abstentions, the Council asks the parties to present to James Baker, UN secretary general's special envoy precise and concrete proposals to settle various problems facing the enforcement of the settlement plan and explore all means to reach a rapid, lasting and concerted solution to the dispute over the Sahara.

Meanwhile, parties to the Sahara conflict will hold a meeting early June after a first round held in London last week between delegates of Morocco, the secessionist Polisario group, Algeria and Mauritania.

MINURSO was deployed in 1990 in the Sahara, a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accord. It is supervising a cease-fire and preparations for a referendum to give populations a chance to say whether they want the Sahara to remain Moroccan territory or stand up on its own as claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario guerilla movement.