The United States on Wednesday backed Morocco's offer of autonomy for the disputed Western Sahara as the best way forward but other U.N. Security Council members said independence must remain an option, according to The Associated Press. The U.S. statement heightened differences over the Western Sahara in the U.N.'s most powerful body at a sensitive time when Morocco and Polisario Front rebels seeking independence have just resumed their first direct talks in seven years. The two sides met on June 18-19 but made no headway in resolving their 32-year dispute. They agreed to meet again on Aug. 10, a move welcomed by the Security Council in a statement after a closed-door briefing by the U.N. envoy for the Western Sahara, Peter Van Walsum. The council expressed hope that «the parties will use the next round of negotiations to engage in good faith in substantial negotiations on the way forward.» During the June talks, Morocco, whose occupation of the former Spanish colony in 1975 sparked a 16-year war with Polisario Front guerrillas, stuck to its proposal for limited autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty for Western Sahara. The Polisario Front, an independence movement backed by Algeria, maintained its demand for a referendum with a choice of autonomy or independence. The Security Council statement made no mention of autonomy or independence, but it reaffirmed its resolution adopted on April 30 calling on the parties to negotiate «with a view to achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.» Morocco and Mauritania split Western Sahara after its Spanish colonizers left the territory in 1975. Full-scale war broke out, and Morocco took over the whole territory after Mauritania pulled out in 1979.
