The United Nations’ 35-year presence in Moroccan Sahara could be coming to an end after the Security Council decided not to renew the mandate of its peacekeeping mission, MINURSO.
The Royal Cabinet described the decision, taken at a meeting on Friday, 30 October 2026, as “an important development and a significant step towards the definitive closure of the Moroccan Sahara issue at the United Nations”.
It said MINURSO’s staff, vehicles, equipment and other symbols of its presence in the southern provinces should leave in the coming days.
The statement said the decision marked the end of a 35-year chapter. It described the mission as an instrument that had brought the regional dispute onto the international agenda.
The Royal Cabinet also said the decision should lead to the issue being removed from the Security Council’s agenda. Regular meetings on Moroccan Sahara, reports by the UN secretary-general and briefings by his personal envoy would then no longer be necessary, it added.
“The political process at the United Nations is thus suspended,” the statement said. It blamed the other parties for delays and what it described as efforts to maintain the deadlock.
Similar steps would be taken in other UN bodies in the coming period, it added.
The announcement coincides with Unity Day, established by King Mohammed VI. The Royal Cabinet said the occasion marked a shift in the approach to the dispute, “from a simple logic of management to an approach of profound transformation of the parameters”.
Despite welcoming the development, the statement said the country remained committed to the ceasefire, while stressing the need to protect its territorial integrity, national security and the safety of its citizens.
Diplomatic efforts led by King Mohammed VI would continue at bilateral and regional levels, it said.
The Royal Cabinet also said more than two-thirds of UN member states, including permanent members of the Security Council and other influential powers, supported autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty as a solution to the dispute.
Those countries “clearly support autonomy, under Moroccan sovereignty, as the only framework for a solution to this regional dispute”, the statement said.
