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Rabat – Morocco recalled on Friday its ambassador to Tunisia for consultations. The decision came a few hours after Tunisia President Kais Saied received Polisario leader Brahim Ghali at Tunis international airport.
Brahim Ghali arrived in Tunisia to participate in the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD).
In response, Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a communique, and announced its decision to not take part in the TICAD Summit which will take place in Tunisia on August 27-28.
“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,” the ministry said.
Describing the situation as a “serious and unprecedented acts,” the ministry said that Tunisia defied Japan’s recommendation by its unilateral decision to invite the separatist leader.
“Faced with this hostile and detrimental attitude to the fraternal relations that the two countries have always maintained the Kingdom of Morocco has decided not to participate in the 8th TICAD Summit and to immediately recall the ambassador,” the statement said.
Tunisia’s decision to invite the leader of the separatist group came a week after King Mohammed VI demanded clarity from Morocco’s partners on the Western Sahara.
During his speech commemorating the 59th anniversary of the Revolution of King and People on August 20, King Mohammed urged all Morocco’s traditional and new partners whose position on the country’s territorial integrity are “ambiguous, to clarify their positions and reconsider them in a manner that leaves no room for doubt. “
Morocco has long emphasized that its sovereignty over Western Sahara is not negotiable or can be trampled with, urging its partners to show unwavering commitment to the country’s territorial integrity.
In 2021, Morocco took similar decisions and recalled its ambassadors from both Germany and Spain over Western Sahara.
In March 2021, Morocco decided to suspend all contacts with the German embassy in Rabat and recalled its ambassador to Berlin in May.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained the decision to recall its ambassador to Berlin by accusing the European country of “exacerbated hostile acts’’ against Morocco’s “higher interests” with regards to Western Sahara.
It was until the two European countries reconsidered their respective positions on the dispute that Morocco agreed to normalize diplomatic ties with Berlin and Madrid.
In December 2021, Germany signaled the country’s desire to mend ties with Morocco and publicly expressed support for the Moroccan Autonomy Plan for Western Sahara as a viable contribution to the UN-led political process to find a mutually acceptable solution to end the decades-long territorial dispute.
In March 2022, Spain decided to endorse Morocco’s Autonomy Plan as the most serious and credible solution to end the dispute over Western Sahara. The Spanish new position on Western Sahara came after a year-long diplomatic tension that resulted from Spain’s decision to host the Polisario Front for hospitalization in April 2021.
As for Germany, the two countries announced on Thursday the opening of a new phase in their diplomatic ties after an unprecedented diplomatic tension.
