The Polisario has welcomed Staffan de Mistura's visit to Moscow on Monday, March 11th. «Russia wants to relaunch the political settlement process, based on UN resolutions and its Charter. It has always opposed the arbitrary and undemocratic manner, without participatory discussion by all members, in the elaboration of Security Council drafts and decisions on the Western Sahara issue», Oubi Bachir, the Front's representative in Geneva, told Echoroukonline. «Russia, if it so wishes, can play an important role in creating the balance that is currently lacking within the Security Council, as the political settlement process has strayed from its original, agreed, and legitimate path, namely the referendum on self-determination», he stressed. The Polisario representative made no mention of MINURSO's «stabilizing role» in the region, mentioned in the Russian Foreign Ministry's statement. In its March 11th statement issued after talks between De Mistura and Sergei Lavrov, Russian diplomacy «stressed the importance of achieving a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable solution to the Western Sahara problem on the basis of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions». A position already expressed on December 20th in Marrakech at the Russia-Arab World Forum. «We support the achievement of a lasting solution on the basis of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, and we intend to pursue our commitment to this line of principle aimed at making progress and reaching appropriate decisions» on the Sahara issue, Lavrov told the media. In Marrakech, the Russian Foreign Minister also called for «guaranteeing the necessary conditions for the effective functioning of the UN mission in Western Sahara, which plays an important stabilizing role in the region».
