"As agreed by the parties during the seventh round of informal talks in June", delegations of the parties to the conflict over the Sahara “will meet on July 19-20 at Greentree, Long Island” for an eighth informal meeting, said the UN Spokesperson

The talks, opened in August 2009 in Austria, to prepare the ground for the 5th round of formal negotiations aiming at finding a lasting political solution to the regional dispute over the Sahara.

The informal talks are part of implementing the Security Council resolutions 1813 (2008), 1871 (2009), 1920 (2010) and 1979 (2011), which call on the parties to enter into a more intensive and substantive phase of negotiations.

The seven previous rounds were held successively in August 2009 in the Austrian locality of Durnstein (near Vienna), in February 2010 in Armonk (near New York), in November, December and January in Manhasset, last March in Malta and last June in Manhasset.