Rabat – Tunisia maintains “complete neutrality” on the Western Sahara as it calls for a peaceful solution to the decades-long dispute, the country’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement on August 27 amid growing diplomatic tensions with Morocco.
“Tunisia has decided to recall its ambassador to Rabat immediately for consultations,” the ministry announced.
The statement comes in response to Morocco’s recalling of its ambassador to Tunis in protest of Tunisia’s hosting of Brahim Ghali, the leader of the separatist Polisario Front seeking independence in southern Morocco.
As well as inviting Ghali to participate in the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) taking place over this weekend in Tunis, the Tunisian government went to great lengths to receive Ghali with the honors of a head of state.
With Morocco having recalled its ambassador to signal its displeasure or frustration with what it considers a lack of reciprocity and an attack on its territorial integrity, the Tunisian ministry’s statement claimed Tunis still wants to maintain good rapports with Rabat.
“While Tunisia affirms its commitment to preserve its friendly, brotherly and historical relations with the Moroccan people, it rejects the phrases contained in the Moroccan statement accusing our country of taking an aggressive stance towards Morocco and harming Moroccan interests,” said the ministry’s statement
It went on to describe the Moroccan reaction as surprising, arguing that it was the African Union (AU), co-organizer of the TICAD, that extended an invitation to all its members, including the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
The decision to invite all members of the AU to TICAD8 was made in meetings of the Executive Council of African Union which were held in Lusaka, Zambia on July 14-15 in the presence of the Moroccan delegation, Tunisian ministry said.
This is not the self-proclaimed SADR’s first participation in the TICAD, it added, noting the previous participation of a Polisario delegation in the sixth TICAD in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2016.
On Friday, Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a press statement its decision to recall the Moroccan ambassador to Tunisia. The move came as no surprise given the country’s non-negotiable stance on Western Sahara.
In a speech on August 20, King Mohammed had indeed insisted that the Moroccanness of the Western Sahara region remains central in Morocco’s foreign policy and to the kingdom’s national identity.
Maintaining good relations with Morocco should come with a recognition of the country’s legitimate stance on the Sahara dispute, the King hinted.
“I expect certain states among Morocco’s traditional partners as well as new ones, whose stances concerning the Moroccanness of the Sahara are ambiguous, to clarify their positions and reconsider them in a manner that leaves no room for doubt,” he said.
In 2021, Morocco recalled its ambassadors to Spain and Germany over the two European countries’ “hostile positions” on the Western Sahara issue.
But the past few months have been marked by a remarkable improvement of diplomatic relations between Morocco and the two countries.
Crucially, bilateral relations with Spain, a historical player in the Sahara dispute as the region’s former colonial power, warmed in March after Madrid officially endorsed Morocco’s Autonomy Plan as the best route to a lasting political resolution of the decades-old dispute.
Meanwhile, Germany’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Annalena Baerbock, visited Morocco earlier this week to reaffirm her country’s readiness to further cement the improving relationship with Rabat.
During her visit, Baerbock notably spoke of her county’s newfound embrace of the Moroccan Autonomy Plan, describing the proposal “as a serious and credible effort” to provide a “realistic, pragmatic, lasting, and mutually acceptable [political solution] to the parties.”
