US embassy cable - 05RABAT1115

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 001115 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NEA/MAG; GENEVA FOR RMA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/02/2009 
TAGS: MO, PBTS, PREL 
SUBJECT: WESTERN SAHARA:  MINURSO SAYS GOM HOLDING UP CBMS 
 
 
Classified By: Classified by A/DCM Tim Lenderking for Reasons 1.4 (b) a 
nd (d) 
 
1.  (C) MINURSO Chief of Staff Philippe Elghouayel told A/DCM 
May 27 that the UN was in the unusual position of having 
adequate funding (thanks in part to the US contribution of 
USD 700,000, A/DCM noted) to go forward with 
confidence-building measures in the Western Sahara but lacked 
a green light from the GOM to proceed.  Elghouayel said the 
GOA and the Polisario had both signed off on the action plan 
for restarting the CBMs, but the Moroccans had proposed three 
amendments.  He said that when ex-SRSG De Soto departed 
Laayoune to take up his post as UN Middle East coordinator, 
he was expecting to go to Geneva for a meeting on the CBMs. 
Elghouayel said the GOM canceled the meeting.  No new date 
has been set, and there is, in Elghouayel's view, "no 
movement" on addressing the three amendments.  Elghouayel 
said his hunch was that the GOM had come to believe that the 
CBMs offered greater advantage to the Polisario than to 
Morocco and volunteered that the problem seemed to be with 
the Moroccan Ministry of Interior and not the MFA. 
 
2.  (SBU) Post will follow up with the GOM to ascertain the 
problem and urge resolution so the CBMs can go forward. 
 
 
 
RILEY