The Polisario front claims that responding to a letter sent by Brahim Ghali, the UN Secretary General is allegedly sharing the same opinion with the separatist movement on several topics. Meanwhile, Guterres' spokesman denied the fact that said letter was answered by the UN top official. Did the UN Secretary-General respond to a letter sent by Brahim Ghali in mid-December ? The Polisario news agency (SPS) confirmed the information through a long article published on Sunday, 7th of January. According to SPS, Guterres started by emphasizing that «establishing independent and credible measures is to ensure the full respect of Human rights» in Western Sahara. Moreover, the UN «is monitoring the Sahara's natural resources' file (…) in accordance with the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and that of the United National Legal Counsel of 2002». A suspicious story Overall, the UN Secretary-General would supposedly share the Polisario positions on the Guerguerate crisis, a supposed Moroccan ceasefire violation in 1991 and the mandate of MINURSO, which should be in line with that of other peacekeeping operations, claims the SPS. Nevertheless, twenty-four hours after the SPS published its article on Guterres' alleged response, the United Nations questioned the authenticity of the «letter». «I don't have any confirmation that such a letter was sent», answered Stephan Dujarric, Guterres' spokesman, yesterday to a question on this topic, during his daily press briefing. Thus, Dujarric put the ball in the court of the Front's leadership which would have to explain the reasons behind its maneuver. Contrary to what is customary in the treatment of messages exchanged between parties and reported by the press, the «excerpts» of the «response» of the UN Secretary-General did not include quotation marks in the article of the SPS.
