UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia vetoed a U.S.-drafted resolution Friday that would have supported Morocco’s demand for sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara and ended the U.N.’s 35-year peacekeeping mission, which was charged with helping to prepare a referendum on the future of the mineral-rich territory.
The U.N. Security Council then defeated a Russian-drafted resolution to extend the mandate of the peacekeeping mission for a year. The 3-1 vote with 11 abstentions meant the United States didn’t have to use its veto because the resolution failed to get the minimum nine “yes” votes in the 15-member body.
The U.N. mission's mandate will expire on Saturday unless there is a last-minute effort to revive it.
Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony also believed to have considerable offshore oil deposits, in 1975, sparking a conflict with the Polisario Front, which represents the indigenous Sahrawi people.
The United Nations brokered a ceasefire in 1991 and established a peacekeeping mission to monitor the truce and help prepare a referendum on the territory’s future. It has never taken place because of disagreements on who is eligible to vote.
Last year, the U.N. Security Council approved a resolution backing Morocco's claim to the Western Sahara, a significant shift that aligns with the Trump administration’s support for the North African country.
That resolution referred to Morocco's proposal for wide-ranging autonomy for the territory as the basis for negotiations and made no mention of a referendum on self-determination. Morocco's plan to maintain sovereignty over the territory also is backed by Britain, France and others, while Russia and China have long favored holding a referendum that includes independence as an option.
The U.S.-drafted resolution put to a vote Friday went much further. It would have ended the peacekeeping mission on April 30, 2027, and created a new political mission no longer preparing for a referendum. It would have affirmed “that genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only feasible solution to negotiate a mutually acceptable solution.”
Russia's rival resolution would have simply extended the current mandate of the peacekeeping mission until Oct. 31, 2027.
In an Oct. 22 letter to the council, the Polisario Front’s U.N. representative called the U.S. draft an “extremely dangerous, unprecedented departure,” not only from international law underpinning Western Sahara as a question of decolonization but from the peace process that the Security Council established.
Sidi Omar warned that its adoption would “trigger further tension and instability,” and the Polisario Front “would have no choice but to disengage from the peace process as a whole.”
He stressed that the International Court of Justice confirmed that sovereignty over Western Sahara “belongs exclusively to the Sahrawi people who have an inalienable, non-negotiable, and imprescriptible right to self-determination and independence.”
Akram Oubachir contributed to this report from Rabat, Morocco
The United States delegation, including U.S ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz, foreground right, listens to speakers at U.N. headquarters, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The top federal prosecutor in Alaska confirmed on Friday the existence of a criminal investigation related to an alleged scheme to confuse voters by putting a Senate candidate on the ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent.
The investigation has been ongoing for several months, but revelations this week from The New York Times that Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola’s campaign appeared to be involved in recruiting
Dan J. Sullivan have resulted in a “significant surge of law enforcement assets to Alaska,” U.S. Attorney Michael Heyman told reporters.
“When credible information comes out, we are committed to pursuing that information to deceive voters and we will act on it. We are acting on it intensely and swiftly,” Heyman said.
The department also confirmed in court documents that they seek to isolate ballots ranking Dan J. Sullivan to probe “confusion” with the GOP incumbent senator.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan Wilson in Alaska, in a filing Friday, said the government “seeks to preserve and segregate all ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan for the purposes of investigating whether such ranking was the product of voter confusion, should such an investigation become necessary.”
The Department of Justice also filed with the court a list of proposed questions it seeks to compel the Peltola campaign and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to answer about their reported role in recruiting the challenger Dan. J. Sullivan. The civil litigation is playing out in parallel to the criminal probe confirmed by Heyman Friday.
This comes as part of the ongoing litigation filed by the Department of Justice last week, seeking to block certification of the Alaska Senate race if the incumbent, Republican Dan Sullivan, loses
The request to segregate the ballots in Alaska comes after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Justice Department’s request for California to set aside disputed ballots received in the midterm election sent to some 20,000 people the administration contends may not be U.S. citizens. California officials argued the list is highly unreliable and most likely includes many people who are U.S. citizens.
Justice Department attorneys said there is a “substantial risk” that the candidacy of Dan J. Sullivan “will mislead voters and ultimately result in an electoral process that lacks integrity.”
“To guard against this danger, the United States seeks an order directing Defendants to preserve and segregate all ballots ranking Daniel J. Sullivan for the purposes of investigating whether such ranking was the product of voter confusion, should such an investigation become necessary,” the filing states. “These modest precautionary measures will be impossible after Election Day, so there is good cause for expedited consideration.”
Attorneys for the state have argued that Alaska elections officials already took steps to distinguish the two Sullivans on the ballot and argued the state’s ranked voting system further addresses concerns about potential confusion.
Heyman would not say what potential crimes authorities are looking into or the targets of the probe, but encouraged the public to come forward with tips that could help investigators.
It’s highly unusual for Justice Department officials to publicly discuss a criminal investigation or even confirm its existence. And the timing of the press conference is particularly notable given that the Justice Department has had a longstanding practice of avoiding taking public steps in the weeks leading up to an election that could be perceived as attempting to influence a political outcome.
Peltola denied Thursday that she knew anything about the effort to put Dan J. Sullivan on the ballot, where Peltola is challenging Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
“I just want to clear the air,” she said at a campaign rally at a downtown bar in Juneau, Alaska’s capital. “I knew nothing about any other candidate on the ballot except for me and the incumbent. That is all I have ever known about. I am not interested in tricking voters.”
Federal prosecutors this week issued dozens of grand jury subpoenas and requests to preserve records, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Dan J. Sullivan has long denied he was running at Democrats’ behest and has said he had no contact with Peltola’s campaign. “Zero, none, zilch,” he said in June after announcing his run.
The race is among a handful of Senate contests this year expected to determine control of the chamber.
Trump had previously directed his Department of Justice to sue to block certification of the Senate race should Peltola defeat Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
State attorneys have asked a court to rule on the Justice Department’s lawsuit by Monday, saying the case could “cast a cloud over Alaska’s election that is contrary to the public interest.”
Separately, Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has ordered an investigation into Peltola, saying the newspaper’s reporting “reveals disturbing new evidence of an organized effort to manipulate Alaska’s elections by recruiting candidates — including one with the same name as an incumbent U.S. Senator — to deliberately confuse voters and misdirect their votes.”
“Deliberately tricking voters into casting their ballots for someone else strikes at the integrity of our elections,” Dunleavy added, noting that the reporting “substantially supports” earlier findings by the state’s elections board into the matter.
Trump on Thursday cast doubt on whether Peltola would be seated in the Senate even if she won the election. “Well, you’re going to have to see what happens,” the president told reporters on his way to a rally in South Carolina. “It’s hard to believe that she could even be allowed to run.”
Durkin Richer reported from Washington. Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska.
U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska Michael J. Heyman holds a news conference on a criminal investigation related to an alleged scheme to confuse voters by putting a Senate candidate on the ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent, at the James M. Fitzgerald U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
U.S. Attorney for the District of Alaska Michael J. Heyman holds a news conference on a criminal investigation related to an alleged scheme to confuse voters by putting a Senate candidate on the ballot with the same name as the Republican incumbent, at the James M. Fitzgerald U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building, Friday, Oct. 30, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
FILE - This combination photo shows Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, left, in Palmer, Alaska, Aug. 17, 2026, and a candidate in Alaska's Senate race, Dan Sullivan, right, in Petersburg, Alaska, July 3, 2026. (AP Photos/Mark Thiessen/Becky Bohrer, File)
Democratic Senate candidate Mary Peltola speaks during a campaign event Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, in Juneau, Alaska. (AP Photo/Chloe Anderson)
A sample election ballot is displayed in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Haven Daley)
