The United States on Wednesday backed Morocco's offer of autonomy to the disputed Western Sahara while urging progress in the next round of talks between Rabat and the Polisario independence movement over the issue.
"We again take note of the Moroccan (autonomy) proposal presented on April 11 ...and welcome Morocco's serious and credible efforts to move the process forward to a resolution," Jackie Sanders, a US delegate to the UN, told reporters.
She welcomed the UN-sponsored direct talks the two sides held in the New York suburb of Manhasset June 18-19 and expressed hope they will "engage in substantive meaningful negotiations on the details of a plan for the way forward" when they next meet in August.
Last month's talks, the first in seven years, produced no breakthrough but Morocco and the Polisario agreed to meet again in Manhasset on August 10 and 11.
Rabat annexed Western Sahara, a northwest African territory on the Atlantic coast after the withdrawal of former colonial ruler Spain and neighbor Mauritania in the 1970s, settling it with around 300,000 Moroccans in 1975.
Last April, Morocco proposed an autonomy referendum that envisages giving Sahrawis "control over their affairs through legislative, executive and judicial institutions" under Moroccan sovereignty and calls for "negotiations for a political solution acceptable to all parties."
"We believe a promising and realistic way forward on the Western Sahara is meaningful autonomy," Sanders said Wednesday after attending Security Council consultations on the issue. "Morocco's initiative could provide a realistic framework to begin negotiations on a plan that would provide for real autonomy contingent the approval of the local population."
But the Polisario has rejected the latest Moroccan referendum proposal and instead put forward its own settlement proposal demanding respect of "the right of the (local) people for self-determination" through a referendum offering the option of independence.
Expressing hope that the two rival sides "will engage realistically," Sanders described the Moroccan initiative as "flexible," noting that it provided "for a referendum in keeping with the principle of self-determination of the people of the Western Sahara.
She denied that her comments signaled a retreat from US support for a Security Council resolution passed last April that took note of the two rival proposals and urged the two sides to launch direct, UN-sponsored talks without preconditions for self-determination in Western Sahara.
"We support direct negotiations," Sanders said. "We are leaving the proposals in the hands of the parties...We support movement forward.
After 16 years of war, a ceasefire between Morocco and the Polisario was declared in 1991. But Rabat repeatedly pushed back a promised self-determination referendum and since 2002 has insisted such a plebiscite is not necessary.
