The assessment the UN Secretary-General's Personal Envoy for the Sahara, Peter van Walsum, submitted to the Security Council, "is as important" as the report of Ban Ki-moon, according to Spain's ambassador to the United Nations, Juan Antonio Yanes-Barnuevo. The Spanish diplomat deemed that "the most important is to know how to give new impetus to the (ongoing) negotiations," in an allusion to the UN-led talks on the Sahara. So far, four rounds were held in Manhasset (New York) in a bid to settle the 32-year Sahara dispute between Morocco and the Algerian-backed separatist movement of Polisario.

Sheikhs and notables from Saharan tribes in the region of Guelmim-Smara expressed their satisfaction following statements by the personal representative of UN Secretary-General, Mr. Peter Van Walsum who submitted his report on the Sahara issue to the Security Council in which he says that the independence of the Sahara "is not a realistic option". In a statement to the MAP, M. Mohamed Ould Sid Bashir, a member of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS), said that although it is not a surprise, Walsum’s statements go in the right direction, adopted by major world powers. 

Spokesperson for the United Nations, Michele Montas said the UNSG Personal Envoy for the Sahara, Peter van Walsum has the capacity as UN facilitator, to present suggestions to get the 32-year-old Sahara issue out of the current impasse.

  Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Sahara, Peter Van Walsum, said on Monday, calling on the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to recommend to the parties involved in the dispute to resume negotiations and take into account the political and international reality.

 The former President of Tunisia, late Habib Bourguiba, considered the dispute created around the Sahara issue as "an artificial problem," said former Tunisian Minister of the Interior, Mr. Taher Belkhouja. In a testimony published daily by the Tunisian newspaper "Al-chourouq" covering relationships between three Maghreb countries (Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria), Mr. Belkhouja said that Algeria has sought "to impose and reinforce such an entity" after the creation of the Polisario Front and its location on Algerian soil. Since then, Algeria "has consistently campaigning for the organization and recognition of a fake political entity," he added, noting that Morocco "has always worked to cope with these developments"