Rabat criticised what it regarded as biased and unbalanced mediation and stalled negotiations. Those assessments were the Moroccan authorities’ position, reported by Le Matin among others; they were not independent findings of bias.
A study by Thierry Desrues and Irene Fernández Molina in L’Année du Maghreb traces Ban Ki-moon’s continued support for Ross. Morocco’s decision opened a mediation crisis but did not amount to the envoy’s dismissal by the UN.