South Africa’s ambassador to the United Nations, Dumisani Kumalo, on Monday rejected a statement from a U.N. envoy to Western Sahara that “an independent Western Sahara was not a realistic proposition” and said the envoy’s position was a danger to any future peace settlement.

The U.N. Security Council discussed Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s report on Western Sahara on Monday. There was also an additional report from his envoy, Peter van Walsum, that seemed to contradict Ban’s report, Kumalo told reporters.

UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Kumalo said that the 15-member council also disagreed with van Walsum’s conclusion and supported Ban’s report urging “the parties to continue to make every concerted effort in their next meetings to try and come to a consensual agreement on the negotiations.”

Kumalo said it is normal for envoys to disagree with the secretary-general, but said, “what is very odd to us this time is that we were presented a report in writing that seemed to contradict what was in the report of the secretary-general,” Kumalo explained.

The sovereignty of Western Sahara is in dispute between Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (Frente Polisario).

Kumalo said that van Walsum believed that the “Frente Polisario must become realistic and realize that they might not achieve their goal of independence.”

Van Walsum, in his report said, “an independent Western Sahara is not an attainable goal is relevant today because it lies at the root of the current negotiation process.”

“For the Frente Polisario, a referendum with independence as an option is indispensable for the achievement of self-determination, whereas Morocco is unable to accept such a referendum, but believes self-determination can be achieved through other forms of popular consultation,” van Walsum wrote in his faxed report to the 15-member council Monday morning.

Kumalo, in his national capacity, responded, “Hey, if we are also in that business, we should also tell the Palestinians to forget it [an independent Palestinian state] and let them be realistic that they would never get that.”

Kumalo clarified that van Walsum was speaking on behalf of himself and not on behalf of Ban. “That’s the danger of this so-called realism. It comes up with things that would not allow, would not apply elsewhere,” he said.

One diplomat in anonymity alleged that van Walsum might have sent a separate report as a pretext for his resignation.

Rima Abdelkader is a journalist based at the United Nations and can be reached at rima.abdelkader@gmail.com.