GENEVA: A second round of talks on the disputed Western Sahara region ended Friday with the sides agreeing to meet again, but with the UN acknowledging many positions remained far apart.
Morocco and the Polisario Front liberation movement appeared to have come no closer on the thorny issue of an independence referendum to decide Western Sahara’s fate.
The Polisario has demanded a vote — a proposal categorically rejected by Rabat.
“This is not and will not be easy,” United Nations envoy and former German President Horst Kohler told reporters in Geneva. “There is still a lot of work ahead,” he said.
“Nobody should expect a quick outcome, because many positions are still fundamentally diverging.”
Foreign ministers from Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania along with the Polisario’s chief negotiator spent the past two days meeting in a secret location “near Geneva.”
Kohler read a joint communique hailing the delegations for engaging in “courteously and openly in an atmosphere of mutual respect.”
The talks focused on finding “a mutually acceptable political solution ... that is realistic, practicable, enduring, based on compromise, just, lasting, (and) which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara,” the communique said.
The parties had agreed to “continue the discussion,” it added.
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told journalists the sides agreed to meet before the summer.
The international community has long advocated that a referendum be held to decide the status of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony on the western edge of the vast eponymous desert, stretching around 1,000 km along the Atlantic coastline.
Second round of talks on Western Sahara ends
Second round of talks on Western Sahara ends
- Foreign ministers from Morocco, Algeria and Mauritania along with the Polisario’s chief negotiator spent the past two days meeting in a secret location “near Geneva”
Afghan government says Pakistan strikes Kabul and border provinces
- A Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Pakistan struck overnight
- Islamabad last month launched a wave of air strikes on its neighbor, an operation it says is targeting militancy
KABUL: Afghan authorities said on Friday that Pakistan had carried out new strikes on Kabul and border provinces, killing four people in the capital.
A Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Pakistan struck overnight, adding their forces targeted the Pakistani Taliban militant group, known as TTP.
Islamabad last month launched a wave of air strikes on its neighbor, an operation it says is targeting militancy following growing attacks in Pakistan.
But the Taliban government has denied any involvement or the use of Afghan territory for militancy.
Khalil Zadran, the spokesman for Kabul police, said four people had been killed and 15 wounded in the bombardment that hit homes in the capital, with women and children among the victims.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid posted on X that Pakistani strikes also hit the southern province of Kandahar, as well as eastern Paktia and Paktika, which border Pakistan.
In Kandahar, which is home to the administration’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, air strikes hit a fuel depot for airline Kam Air, near the airport.
This company supplies fuel to civilian airlines and United Nations aircraft.
Pakistan insists it has not killed any civilians in the conflict. Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.
Afghan and Pakistani forces have also clashed repeatedly at the border in recent weeks, hampering trade and forcing nearby residents to leave their homes.
‘Open war’
The United Nations’ mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has said that 56 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan, including 24 children, by Pakistani military operations between February 26 and March 5.
About 115,000 people were forced to leave their homes, according to the UN refugee agency.
Fighting between the two countries intensified on February 26, when Afghanistan launched an offensive along the frontier, in retaliation for earlier Pakistani air strikes targeting the TTP.
Pakistan then declared “open war” against the Taliban authorities, bombing the capital, Kabul, on February 27.
Since then, clashes have increased in border regions, including overnight Wednesday to Thursday that the Afghan authorities said killed four members of the same family in Khost province.
The Taliban government said on Thursday that four members of the same family, including two children, were killed by Pakistani artillery and mortar fire in eastern Afghanistan.
Seven people had been killed in Afghanistan since Tuesday as a result of cross-border clashes between the two sides, according to the authorities in Kabul.
Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said the latest deaths happened early Thursday in the village of Sadqo in Khost province, accusing Pakistan of deliberately targeting civilian homes and nomads’ tents.
