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Rabat – Azali Assoumani, President of the East African country Comoros, said today that he regrets Morocco’s absence from the 8th edition of The Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). The Summit is taking place this Saturday and Sunday in Tunis.
Morocco decided to boycott TICAD after Tunisia’s president Kais Saied invited Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Polisario’s front, to the conference. Saied’s move resulted in rising diplomatic tensions between Tunis and Rabat.
“I would like to express our regret for the absence of Morocco, a pillar of Africa for reasons of compliance with the rules established so far for the organization of this Ticad summit,” said Assoumani today on the opening day of the conference.
President Assoumani added he hoped that the incident “would not affect the expectations” of the African people regarding the “strategic partnership between Africa and Japan.”
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In addition to the Comoros leader, Macky Sall, Senegal’s President and current Chairperson of the African Union, said that his country “regrets that this TICAD will be marked by the absence of Morocco, a prominent member of the African Union.”
Meanwhile, Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo expressed a bolder stance after he left the ongoing TICAD Summit, protesting the inclusion of Brahim Ghali.
In response to Tunisia’s sudden change in stance regarding the Western Sahara dispute, Morocco recalled yesterday its ambassador to Tunisia for consultations and announced its decision to not participate in the TICAD summit.
Sources from the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to Morocco World News the return of ambassador Hassan Tariq to Rabat. The ambassador, who traveled back to Morocco onboard a special Royal Air Maroc flight, was accompanied by his family members and staff from the embassy in Tunis.
Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Tunisia’s move as a “hostile and detrimental attitude” that could jeopardize the “fraternal relations” between the two African countries.
For Rabat, Tunisia has incomprehensibly chosen to end its longstanding decades of neutrality regarding the Western Sahara dossier by welcoming Polisario leader Brahim Ghali.
