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UN Security Council, Secretariat review progress in discussions on MINURSO return

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Washington, June 19, 2016 (SPS) -The United Nations Security Council reviewed with the Secretariat the progress achieved in discussions with Moroccan authorities on return of the MINURSO's civil staff expelled by Morocco in last March.
However, no information on this meeting, held behind closed doors upon request from Venezuela, has been given.
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous Hervé Ladsous informed the Security Council of progress in discussions held with the Moroccan government on the civil staff of the MINURSO.
The 2285 resolution adopted by the UN Security Council on 29 April extending the MINURSO mandate to30 April 2017 provides for searching the best means to enable the MINURSO resume its mission after the expiration of the three-month deadline.
Morocco tried to foil a technical mission of the United Nations, dispatched in El Aaiun, to negotiate the return of the staff of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), expelled by Morocco, said Wednesday Ahmed Boukhari, representative of the Polisario Front at the United Nations.
“The information that we have is that the Moroccan authorities tried to divert this technical mission from its purpose,” said Boukhari, in 2016’s session of the UN special committee on decolonization, called also Committee of 24, held in Nicaragua. (SPS)
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