Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez stated on Thursday that he was not aware of the Sahara partition proposal put forward by UN Secretary-General's Personal Envoy, Staffan de Mistura. «We have no knowledge of this proposal; we need to study it, so I can't express any position», he said during a press conference. De Mistura has proposed dividing the Sahara between Morocco and the Polisario Front as a potential solution to the nearly five-decade-long conflict, according to remarks reported by Reuters. In a closed-door briefing to the Security Council on Wednesday, de Mistura suggested that partition «could allow for the creation of an independent state in the southern part, while integrating the rest of the territory into Morocco, with international recognition of its sovereignty over it». Neither Morocco nor the Polisario Front has accepted this proposal, de Mistura mentioned during the briefing. He added that the UN Secretary-General should reconsider the viability of his envoy's role if no progress is made within six months. It is worth noting that the idea of dividing the Sahara is not new. Algeria presented a similar proposal in 2001, suggesting that Morocco retain the Saguia el-Hamra region (two-thirds of the Sahara) and that the Polisario Front establish its independent state in the Wadi el-Dahab region (the remaining one-third). However, Morocco swiftly rejected Algeria's partition proposal, as noted in the Secretary-General's May 22, 2003 report on the Sahara situation.
