De Mistura has said in a briefing to the Security Council last year that he raised the concept of partitioning the territory between Morocco and Algeria’s Polisario proxies. He also said in a briefing leaked by news agencies that he regretted that the idea was rejected by the parties. It was up to the members of the Security Council and the parties themselves to see what to embrace as a way forward, he said. However, the very fact that he raised partition as an alternative indicates his utter failure as a personal envoy. In raising partition, de Mistura uses the same colonial lenses that abruptly divided African territories with disregard for demography, history, and identity of these territories.

Source: The North Africa Journal October 21, 2024 20:16 UTC