Your Turn Mr. Ross…
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced he plans to appoint US diplomat Christopher Ross as his new special envoy to Western Sahara. The previous envoy Peter van Walsum was seen as favoring Morocco after making comments that Western Saharan independence was “unrealistic.” It seems that Ban Ki-moon and ambassador of the United States to the UN, Zalmay Khalilzad, worked to find someone palatable to all three parties (the Polisario, Morocco and Algeria) to appoint as the new envoy.
Ross is noteable in that he actually speaks Arabic (having taught the language at both Columbia and Princeton) and has already served as a diplomat and ambassador in the region, with postings in both Morocco and Algeria. Wow, at least he is qualified, now let’s see if he can deliver.
The Middle East Times published a point-counter point between several former US ambassadors to Morocco and the AU ambassador to Western Sahara. Both are well worth checking out. I wish I had the optimism of the former, but tend to share the criticism and reservations of the latter. At the end of the day the status quo benefits Morocco and without any changes from the US, EU and/or UN it will be hard for Ross to achieve all that much. On the flip side, I don’t really think all that much pressure would be required for a great deal of progress.
For more insight on Ross, check out his article “Public Diplomacy Necessary for Policy Success.”
