Members of the US Embassy in Rabat visited on Tuesday, December the 18th, Laayoune, sources told Yabiladi. The US delegation met with the head of the MINURSO before flying back to the capital. This meeting took place a few days after the National Security Advisor of the United States John Bolton said that he was «frustrated» that the Western Sahara conflict has not been resolved. «We will no longer support unproductive, unsuccessful, and unaccountable UN peacekeeping missions», Bolton told reporters at the Heritage Foundation thinktank in Washington on December the 13th. The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) is granted $52 million annually. This sum is expected to be reduced next year. Indeed, the United States plans to cut UN peacekeeping budget. Washington is targeting the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) and the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). This strategy is part of the Trump administration's new policy in Africa, which was highlighted last week by John Bolton.
