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C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 000459 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/08/2017 
TAGS: PREL PGOV UNSC WI AG MO AF
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE DELIVERED TO POLISARIO TO COME TO TALKS 
 
REF: STATE 74895 
 
Classified By: Amb. Zalmay Khalilzad. E.O 12958. Reasons 1.4 (B&D). 
 
¶1. (C) Ambassador Sanders delivered reftel demarche June 6 to 
Polisario New York Rep Ahmed Boukhari, stressing the 
importance of maintaining the momentum established by UNSCR 
1754 and underscoring the expectation that the parties will 
engage seriously and show flexibility as they work through 
their differences.  She urged the Polisario to enter the 
dialogue with an open and positive attitude, adding that the 
international community was watching and that the Polisario 
should not risk the loss of credibility in the international 
community by failing to engage. 
 
¶2. (C) Boukhari, who had just returned the previous evening 
from an extraordinary session of the Polisario leadership in 
Tindouf, said that the Polisario had made a June 3 decision 
to participate in the UN-sponsored talks and to do so 
seriously, a point he subsequently repeated three more times. 
 He said the Polisario intended to send a high level 
delegation -- the same one that took part in the negotiations 
that led to the Houston Agreements concluded under the 
auspices of former SYG Personal Envoy James Baker.  The 
delegation, the first members of which will be arriving in 
New York as early as June 11, will include: 
 
--(1) Mahfud ALI BEIBA (Del Head), former PM and current 
President of Parliament, Political Leadership Member 
--(2) Mohamed KHADAD, Political Leadership Member 
--(3) Brahim GHALI, Political Leadership Member 
--(4) Ahmed BOUKHARI (New York Rep), Political Leadership 
Member 
--(5) Bachir SEGAYER, Adviser, Former New York Rep 
--(6) Omar Abdellahi SIDI MOHAMED, Adviser, Current London Rep 
 
¶3. (C) Boukhari said the Polisario hope was that Morocco will 
also enter the talks prepared to work seriously as well. 
But, Boukhari said, recent Moroccan behavior at the UN 
Regional Conference on Decolonization (Committee-24) in 
Grenada, where Morocco tried unsuccessfully to have three 
members of the CORCAS speak as representatives of Western 
Sahara, suggested the Moroccans are up to their old games 
again.  In the same Grenada meeting a few weeks ago, Morocco 
also tried unsuccessfully to remove a reference to "the two 
parties" (Morocco and Polisario) in the final statement, 
Boukhari said.  Morocco, he continued, was trying to create 
the impression that the Western Saharan problem is one 
between Sahrawi rather than between Morocco and the Polisario 
Front.  He said this was a Moroccan tactic tried in 1993 with 
then U.S. PermRep Albright and in 2000 with then Personal 
Envoy Baker, and it had not worked those times either. 
 
¶4. (C) Boukhari said that the Polisario knows it will not be 
an easy task to arrive at a result that will satisfy both 
sides, but that trying to engage is a better option than 
doing nothing.  Boukhari said he hoped that the talks might 
at least bring about a "cease-fire" in human rights 
violations in Western Sahara.  Boukhari said the Polisario 
hoped it would be able to secure wide support from the 
international community.  Of the "Friends," he said that the 
Polisario had still not determined the position of recently 
elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who, they hoped, 
would not be as one-sided as his predecessor.  Boukhari said 
flatly that the Polisario does not trust the Spanish, who, 
they believe, are playing a double game, asserting that they 
are pro-Polisario while secretly being pro-French.  As for 
the U.S., Boukhari said the Polisario was pleased with 
Ambassador Riley's May 9 affirmation that there are indeed 
two parties to the dispute (Morocco and the Polisario) and 
that the Moroccan autonomy plan is not the only plan on the 
table for the upcoming talks. 
 
¶5. (C) Ambassador Sanders said that it was important to take 
one step at a time and that the first step was the most 
important.  The U.S., she said, will be standing by, ready to 
assist the parties as they may wish. 
KHALILZAD