Moscow (Russia) April 28, 2026 (SPS) – Today, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Alexander Sergeyevich Alimov, met with a Sahrawi delegation led by Mr. Mohamed Yeslam Besset, Minister of Foreign Affairs and African Affairs, and including Dr. Sidi Mohamed Ammar, member of the National Secretariat, representative of the Polisario Front to the United Nations and coordinator with MINURSO, and Dr. Ali Salem Mohamed Fadel, representative of the Front in the Russian Federation.
The meeting, which took place at the headquarters of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow, comes within the framework of ongoing communication between the Russian and Sahrawi parties, and allowed the two parties to discuss several topics of common interest, including the status and prospects of the United Nations-sponsored peace process in Western Sahara and other relevant issues against the backdrop of the recent Security Council consultation session on the MINURSO mission.
In this context, the Sahrawi delegation informed its interlocutors of the latest developments related to the Sahrawi issue and the peace process, including the course of the discussions that recently took place between the two parties to the conflict, the Polisario Front and Morocco, and in the presence of the two observer countries, Algeria and Mauritania.
The Sahrawi delegation also recalled the readiness of the Polisario Front to enter into direct negotiations with the Moroccan party under the auspices of the United Nations in order to enable the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to complete the implementation of the mandate for which it was established by the Security Council, while emphasizing the strong adherence of the Sahrawi people to their inalienable and non-negotiable rights to self-determination and independence.
For his part, the Russian official affirmed the firmness of his country’s position in support of the United Nations-sponsored peace process in Western Sahara on the basis of the relevant Security Council resolutions in order to reach a just, lasting and acceptable solution to the two parties to the conflict, the Polisario Front and Morocco, and that is consistent with the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter and guarantees the right of the Sahrawi people to free and genuine self-determination.
It is worth recalling that the Russian Federation abstained from voting on the recent UN Security Council resolutions related to renewing the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) as an expression of its protest against the non-consultative and unbalanced manner in which the resolutions are formulated and negotiated, which, according to the Russian side, harms the impartial and neutral approach necessary to resolve the Western Sahara issue.
The meeting was also attended by Mr. Kirill Lukvinov, Director of the International Organizations Department, on the Russian side. (SPA)
