Arab Maghreb Union Calls for Reconciliation Between Morocco, Tunisia

Rabat – Taieb Baccouche, General Secretary of the Maghreb Arab Union, is seeking to secure reconciliation between Morocco and Tunisia amid diplomatic tensions sparked by Tunis’s decision to invite the Polisario leader to the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD).

In a communique on Monday, Baccouche said he regrets that regional tensions seem to be deepening despite its call on Tunisia months ago to take de-escalation initiatives as hostilities grew between Algeria and Morocco after the Algerian government announced its decision to sever its diplomatic ties with Morocco.

Baccouche also noted the union’s call to hold a meeting for the Maghreb foreign ministers to discuss a political solution to the decade-old Libyan crisis.

Amid all regional crises, the union’s general secretary was disconcerted by the outbreak of another crisis after the TICAD controversy.

“We have been surprised by a new crisis in relations between Tunisia and Morocco. The relationship is going through an ordeal,” he explained.

Tunisia infuriated Morocco last week after its president Kais Saied welcomed Polisario leader Brahim Ghali, with whom he engaged in bilateral talks on the sidelines of the TICAD event.

Morocco’s government reacted by recalling its ambassador to Tunisia and denouncing Tunis’s “unilateral decision” to invite Ghali to the Japan-Africa summit, in defiance of protocols set by the Japanese foreign ministry.

“After having recently multiplied negative positions and acts with regard to the Kingdom of Morocco and its higher interests, Tunisia’s attitude within the framework of the TICAD process confirms blatant hostility,” Moroccan Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Friday last week.

Japan also denounced the participation of Polisario in the conference, saying in a statement: “The presence of any entity, which Japan does not recognize as a sovereign state at the TICAD meetings, including the Senior Officials Meeting and the Summit Meeting, does not affect the position of Japan regarding the status of this entity.”

Tunisia’s invitation to the Polisario leader came a week after King Mohammed VI called on all of Morocco’s partners with an ambiguous stance on the Sahara dispute to make their position on the matter clear.

The Sahara issue “is the lens through which Morocco looks at the world. It is the clear, simple benchmark whereby my country measures the sincerity of friendships and the efficiency of partnerships,” the King emphasized.