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Rabat – Moncef Marzouki, former President of Tunisia, has joined the growing chorus of voices condemning the current Tunisian President Kais Saied’s decision to host Brahim Ghali, the leader of the separatist Polisario Front pushing for independence in Morocco’s southern provinces.
The move undermines Tunisia’s historically neutral position and jeopardizes the union of the Maghreb countries, Marzouki argued.
Tunisia’s position on the Western Sahara dispute has always been consistent no matter who was president, he emphasized, saying that Tunis has historically strived to resolve the territorial dispute without taking sides.
“By receiving the head of Polisario as if he was the President of an internationally recognized country, [the president] has abandoned this tradition,” Marzouki said in a Facebook post. “This reception is a public and clear acknowledgement of the Sahrawi state.”
Marzouki said that the issue of the invitation being extended to the Polisario leader by the African Union could have been avoided through a protocol reception by the Foreign Ministry, not the president.
He criticized Saied’s move as jeopardizing the union of the countries in the Maghreb region, arguing that the region is in need of ending adversity and not “pouring more oil to the fire.”
Marzouki reiterated that Algeria’s support of Polisario’s ambitions to found a new state in the Maghreb has undermined both Moroccan interests and the shared regional interest of creating a functional Maghreb union.
“The only solution for Sahrawis is not pursuing a county that will only see the light on Morocco’s rubble,” Marzouki said, adding that the solution is instead to work with Morocco’s Autonomy Plan for the region.
On Friday, Tunisian President Kais Saied received Brahim Ghali, head of the separatist Polisario Front with the high honors usually reserved for a head of state, igniting diplomatic tensions with Morocco.
The kingdom immediately recalled its ambassador to Tunisia, to which the Tunisian government responded in kind.
Although Tunisia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed the country continues to be completely neutral on the issue of Western Sahara, the high-level reception of the Polisario chief has decidedly sent a different message to Rabat and seasoned observers of the Maghreb.
