MOSCOW, November 2. /TASS/. Moscow opposes ultimatum-based solutions imposed from the outside to resolve the situation in Western Sahara, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, commenting on a UN Security Council vote on the region.
"On October 30, the UN Security Council failed to extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). The Russian delegation had to vote against the relevant draft resolution prepared by the United States. China, Pakistan and Somalia abstained. The document's authorities apparently expected us not to block the extension of the UN operation, which is led by a Russian national, and had included provisions in the document that we and a number of other UN Security Council members found unacceptable," the statement reads.
One of the proposals called for making a particular option the only possible solution to the Western Sahara issue, depriving the region's people of the right to determine their own future and that of the land where they have lived since the end of the Spanish colonial era in North Africa. "Such an approach would run counter to the principle and goals of the UN Charter, including the principle of self-determination," the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed, adding that Moscow "does not support ultimatum-based solutions imposed form the outside."