The Manhasset negotiations (also known as Manhasset I, II, III and IV) were a series of talks that took place in four rounds in 2007–2008 at
Manhasset, New York
Manhasset is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York. It is considered the anchor community of the Greater Manhasset area. The population was 8,176 at the 2020 United States ce ...
between the
Moroccan government
Politics of Morocco take place in a framework of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, whereby the prime minister of Morocco is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative ...
and the representatives of the
Saharawi liberation movement, the Polisario Front to resolve the
Western Sahara conflict
The Western Sahara conflict is an ongoing conflict between the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic/ Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco. The conflict originated from an insurgency by the Polisario Front against Spanish colonial forces ...
. They were considered the first direct negotiations in seven years between the two parties. Also present at the negotiations were the neighboring countries of
Algeria
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, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
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, relig ...
and
Mauritania.
The negotiations were a result of the
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1754 of April 30, 2007 which urged both parties to "enter into direct negotiations without preconditions and in good faith." The resolution also stipulated the
(MINURSO) mission extension until October 31, 2007.
The first round of talks took place on June 18–19, 2007 during which both parties agreed to resume talks on August 10–11. The second round ended with no breakthroughs, but parties agreed again to meet for another round. During the last round which took place between January 8 and 9, 2008, parties agreed on "the need to move into a more intensive and substantive phase of negotiations". A fourth round of talks was held from 18 March to 19 March 2008. The negotiations were being supervised by
Peter van Walsum,
UN Secretary General
The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations.
The role of the secretary-g ...
Ban Ki-moon's personal envoy for
Western Sahara
Western Sahara ( '; ; ) is a disputed territory on the northwest coast and in the Maghreb region of North and West Africa. About 20% of the territory is controlled by the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), while the ...
.
Background
The Manhasset rounds can be considered as the third attempt to reach a peaceful solution for the Western Sahara conflict. In 1991, a
cease-fire agreement was concluded, which planned for a
self-determination referendum
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
(between integration to Morocco and independence as the
SADR
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (; SADR; also romanized with Saharawi; ar, الجمهورية العربية الصحراوية الديمقراطية ' es, República Árabe Saharaui Democrática), also known as Western Sahara, is a ...
) in 1992. Because of disagreements over who should be allowed to vote, the referendum was repeatedly postponed. Morocco had brought large numbers of illegal settlers into the territory to outweigh the indigenous vote. Polisario insisted on the 1991 agreement's use of a Spanish
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...
, taken immediately before the Moroccan occupation in 1975, as the basis of voter registration. Morocco, for its part, argued that these people were in fact Sahrawis, and that no vote could take place without them.
In 1997, after US-backed mediation, Morocco and the Polisario Front went through what is known as the
Houston Agreement The Houston Agreement was the result of negotiations between the Polisario Front and Morocco on the organization of a referendum, which would constitute an expression of self-determination for the people of Western Sahara, possibly leading to full i ...
which restarted the referendum process. The UN's
MINURSO
The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara ( ar, بعثة الأمم المتحدة لتنظيم استفتاء في الصحراء الغربية; french: Mission des Nations Unies pour l'Organisation d'un Référendum au ...
mission, tasked with keeping the peace and organizing the vote on independence, concluded its pre-referendum voter registration in 1999, with a preliminary list of approximately 85,000 voters. Morocco protested the exclusion of large numbers of people it had claimed were of Western Saharan descent, who had been refused voting rights after interviews by MINURSO on-site inspection teams, and subsequently refused to accept the survey. When the kingdom launched some 130,000 individual appeals, UN officials admitted that the process had again entered a deadlock.
Starting in 2000, there were new attempts to salvage the peace process, like the
Baker Plan
The Baker Plan (formally, Peace Plan for Self-Determination of the People of Western Sahara) is a United Nations initiative to grant self-determination to Western Sahara. It was intended to replace the Settlement Plan of 1991, which was further ...
(Plans I and II); again with forceful US backing. These documents both involved full voting rights for all persons resident in the territory, including those Polisario had referred to as "settlers", irrespective of what MINURSO's voter identification commission had arrived at. The first Baker plan was circulated as a draft, and energetically supported by Morocco, but after Polisario voiced equally strong opposition, it was discarded by the Security Council. In contrast, the latter, more detailed version was sponsored by a UN Security Council resolution
SCR 1495 in the summer of 2003, and thereafter cautiously accepted by Polisario, allegedly after strong Algerian pressure. However, it was categorically refused by Morocco on the grounds that it included independence as a ballot option; after the arrival of
Mohammed VI of Morocco
Mohammed VI ( ar, محمد السادس; born 21 August 1963) is the King of Morocco. He belongs to the 'Alawi dynasty and acceded to the throne on 23 July 1999, upon the death of his father, King Hassan II.
Upon ascending to the throne, Moh ...
to the throne, in 1999, Morocco had reneged on its 1991 and 1997 agreements on a vote on independence. Polisario argued that Morocco had thus broken a main condition of the 1991 cease-fire agreement, which had wholly hinged on the independence referendum, but despite this, it did not resume fighting.
Another deadlock ensued, during which Morocco made it known that it was readying a proposal for autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty. Polisario agreed to enter autonomy as a third option on the referendum ballot, but refused to discuss any referendum that did not allow for the possibility of independence, arguing that such a referendum could not constitute
self-determination in the legal sense of the term.
Delegations
Morocco
The only member of the Moroccan delegation absent at Manhasset II-IV was
Fouad Ali El Himma, the former Delegate Minister to the Interior. The participants were:
*
Chakib Benmoussa
Chakib Benmoussa ( ar, شكيب بن موسى) (born 1958, Fes) is a Moroccan diplomat and politician. He previously served as the interior minister of Morocco[Taieb Fassi Fihri
Taieb Fassi Fihri (born 9 April 1958) is a Moroccan politician who is Counsellor to King Mohammed VI since 2012. He was Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs from 1993 to 2007, then foreign minister from 2007 to 2012.
Education and career
Fa ...]
, Deputy Foreign Minister,
*
Khalihenna Ould Errachid, Chairman of
CORCAS,
*
Yassine Mansouri, head of Morocco's intelligence (
DGED),
*
Mohamed Saleh Tamek, then Wali (governor) of the
Oued Ed-Dahab-Lagouira region and cousin of
Ali Salem Tamek.
* CORCAS Secretary General
Maoulainine Khallihenna.
Other top-level government officials from the
Southern Provinces
The Southern Provinces ( ar, الأقاليم الجنوبية, Al-Aqalim al-Janubiyah, french: Provinces du Sud) or Moroccan Sahara ( ar, الصحراء المغربية, Assahra al-Maghribiya, french: Sahara marocain) are the terms used by th ...
were also part of the delegation.
Polisario Front
*
Mahfoud Ali Beiba
Mahfoud Ali Beiba Hammad Dueihi ( ar, محفوظ علي بيبا حماد; born 1953 – died July 2, 2010) was a Sahrawi politician and co-founder of the Polisario Front, a national liberation movement that seeks self-determination for Wes ...
, President of the
Sahrawi National Council
The Sahrawi National Council (SNC) or Sahrawi Parliament is the legislature of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Its structure and competences are guided by the Constitution of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). The present speaker ...
and Head of the Polisario delegation
*
Bachir Radhi Segaiar, an adviser to Polisario leader
Mohammed Abdelaziz
*
Ahmed Boukhari, Polisario representative at the UN
*
Brahim Ghali
Brahim Ghali () ( ar, rtl=yes, إبراهيم غالي, Ibrāhīm Ġālī; es, Brahim Gali; born 16 September 1949) is a Sahrawi politician and military officer that serves as the current president of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) ...
*
Mohamed Khadad
*
Sidi M. Omar
Algeria
*
Abdallah Baali
Abdallah Baali (born 19 October 1954) is an Algerian career diplomat.
Baali was born in Guelma, Algeria. After he graduated from the ''Ecole nationale d'administration'' in 1977, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served as a counsello ...
, Ambassador, adviser at the Foreign Affairs Ministry
*
Youcef Yousfi
Youcef Yousfi ( ar, يوسف اليوسفي) (born 2 October 1941) is an Algerian politician who has been Minister of Energy and Mines between 2010 and 2015. He briefly served as Acting Prime Minister of Algeria in March–April 2014. Yousfi ...
, Algerian Ambassador to the UN
Mauritania
*
Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar
Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar ( ar, سيدي محمد ولد بوبكر; born 31 May 1957)
Agence Mauritanienne d'Informa ...
, Ambassador to Spain
*
Abderrahim Ould Hadrami, Ambassador to the UN
*
Abdelhafid Hemmaz, adviser at the Foreign Ministry
References and notes
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2007 in New York (state)
2008 in New York (state)
Western Sahara peace process
Morocco–United States relations