Western Sahara: Russia blocks US plan and MINURSO mandate expires

The UN Security Council rejected two competing draft resolutions on Western Sahara on Friday, October 30, 2026, in New York, leaving the UN mission deployed in the territory without an approved extension. According to Al Jazeera, citing AP and Reuters, Russia vetoed the text put forward by the United States, which was supported by eleven of the fifteen Council members. The subsequent Russian draft failed to garner the nine votes required for adoption.

The mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara, MINURSO, was set to expire on Saturday, October 31, 2026, barring a last-minute agreement.

What the US text aimed to change

The American draft proposed renewing the mission for one year, but also removing the word "referendum" from its name and making the Moroccan autonomy plan the sole basis for future negotiations, reports Al Jazeera. Under this framework, the territory would manage its internal affairs while remaining under Moroccan sovereignty. The Security Council had already adopted this autonomy proposal as a basis for discussion last year.

Before the Council, US Ambassador Mike Waltz argued that the referendum had been deadlocked for decades. His Russian counterpart, Vassily Nebenzia, justified his opposition by stating that the text favored only one of the parties. Moscow proposed renewing the mission without these modifications.

Rabat wants peacekeepers to leave, Polisario welcomes the veto

The Moroccan Royal Palace welcomed the non-renewal of MINURSO on October 30 and stated that UN personnel and equipment should leave the territory, according to Al Jazeera. Sidi Omar, the Polisario Front's representative to the United Nations, conversely welcomed the Russian veto to the press, judging that the American proposal would have weakened the Sahrawi people's right to self-determination.

Thirty-five years of waiting

A former Spanish colony in the northwest of the continent, Western Sahara is considered by Morocco to be an integral part of its territory, while the Polisario Front, supported by Algeria, claims an independent state, the Sahrawi Republic. The UN created MINURSO in 1991 to monitor a ceasefire and prepare for a self-determination referendum. Disagreements over voter eligibility have never allowed it to be organized.

Low-intensity fighting has continued since the Polisario announced the resumption of armed struggle in 2020. Thirty-five years after the mission's creation, the file remains one of the oldest on the Security Council's agenda, and the question of the Sahrawis' right to be consulted on their future remains unresolved.