Tunisia Hosts Polisario in Fresh Affront to Morocco's Sovereignty
Doha – In a blatant affront to Morocco's sovereignty, Tunisia has once again thrown open its doors to the Polisario Front separatists, permitting their delegation to infiltrate a conference on 'Building Social Cohesion in a Changing World' currently underway in Tunis.
Ayoub Mohamed Sidi, who masquerades as the Central Director of Youth at the fictional 'Ministry of Youth and Sports' of the illegitimate 'Sahrawi Republic,' is brazenly participating in the event at the behest of the notoriously biased Catalan NGO NOVACT.
This flagrant provocation exemplifies Tunisia's relentless campaign against Morocco's territorial integrity.
The conference assembles organizations and self-proclaimed experts from the Mediterranean region to deliberate on various challenges, while shamelessly carving out dedicated space for what the separatist militia euphemistically calls 'Sahrawi resistance'—another thinly-veiled platform for the Algerian puppet group to disseminate its toxic narrative.
President Kaïs Saïed's subservience to Algeria
Tunisia's collusion with NOVACT to harbor Polisario operatives on its soil follows an established pattern of hostility. In September 2022, this same organization orchestrated a forum labeled 'Camp for Climate Justice' in Tunisia, where the separatist front lurked behind the façade of the Spanish NGO.
That underhanded maneuver forced the Moroccan delegation to withdraw in righteous protest after the separatists surreptitiously organized an unscheduled workshop provocatively titled 'Climate Change Under Occupation, Green Washing.'
Diplomatic relations between Rabat and Tunis have plummeted precipitously since August 2022, when Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed scandalously lavished Polisario chief Brahim Ghali with state honors during the Japan-Africa summit (TICAD).
Ghali—ferried to Tunis aboard an Algerian presidential aircraft—was personally welcomed by an obsequious Saïed at Carthage Airport, where the two conspired in closed-door talks.
'After repeatedly taking negative positions and actions against the Kingdom of Morocco and its higher interests, Tunisia's attitude in the TICAD process flagrantly confirms its hostility,' Morocco's Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared forcefully at the time, announcing the immediate recall of Morocco's ambassador to Tunis in a decisive diplomatic rebuke.
The incident triggered a stern Japanese condemnation of Tunisia's reckless unilateral action. In an unambiguous statement during TICAD's first plenary session, the Japanese delegation emphatically reaffirmed that the separatist front's presence did not reflect its stance on the Sahara dispute. 'TICAD is a forum for discussion on development in Africa,' said the statement, stressing that 'the presence of any entity not recognized by Japan as a sovereign state does not affect Japan's position regarding the status of this entity.'
Tunisia's subservience to Algeria on the Sahara issue has become increasingly evident. In August 2024, President Saïed imperiously directed his Foreign Minister, Mohamed Ali Nafti, to enshrine 'the defense of peoples' right to self-determination as a constant in Tunisian diplomacy,' effectively parroting Algeria's contrived position on the Sahara conflict.
Read also: Algeria, Tunisia Skip Arab Summit: A Saga of Diplomatic Isolation and Hypocrisy
This calculated pivot in Tunisia's stance began in October 2021, when the country revealingly abandoned its long-maintained neutrality by abstaining from voting on a UN Security Council resolution on the Sahara.
The following December, Tunisia's foreign minister eagerly attended a forum in Oran engineered by Algeria specifically to manipulate African countries into supporting the Polisario's spurious claims at the Security Council.
Many fear that Tunisia's gradual embrace of Algeria's Morocco-bashing agenda will at some point disrupt the historically cordial relations between Rabat and Tunis. 'The Sahara issue is the prism through which Morocco views its international environment. It is also clearly and simply the measure that gauges the sincerity of friendships and the effectiveness of partnerships it establishes,' King Mohammed unequivocally proclaimed in a speech on August 20, 2022.
The Moroccan monarch once again brought this idea to the forefront in his speech on November 6, 2024. Marking the 49th anniversary of the Green March, King Mohammed VI delivered a powerful denunciation of Algeria's obstinate hostility regarding the Sahara issue.
Without naming Algeria directly, the King condemned those 'still feeding on the illusions of the past' and 'clinging to outdated theories and claims' in support of an independence referendum that has been 'discarded by the United Nations' as impractical.
While Morocco's autonomy plan for the Sahara has garnered overwhelming international support from more than 110 countries—including distant powers like the United States, France, and Spain—conspicuously absent is backing from its closest geographical neighbors.
Algeria continues to bankroll and arm the separatist Polisario militia while cynically exploiting vulnerable Sahrawis in the Tindouf camps, who endure deplorable, humiliating conditions with restricted movement despite living on Algerian soil.
Despite Morocco's vehement objections, Tunisia's persistent harboring of Polisario representatives conclusively demonstrates that reconciliation between Rabat and Tunis is off the table as the North African neighbor continues to willfully entangle itself deeper in Algeria's venomous anti-Moroccan agenda. Tags: Polisario FrontTunisia
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