Ex-Secretary of State Quits as Peace Envoy

Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III resigned as the top U.N. envoy to Western Sahara after years of frustrated attempts to resolve the conflict between Morocco and independence-seeking rebels, a U.N. spokesman said.

Baker had grown increasingly frustrated in his job as Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s personal envoy. He was initially unable to arrange a referendum on the territory’s future and later failed to get Morocco to accept his peace plan. That plan would have given Western Sahara immediate self-government and required a referendum within five years to decide whether the mineral-rich desert territory on Africa’s Atlantic coast should be independent or part of Morocco.