Diplomatic conflict between Morocco and Tunisia after the visit of the head of the Polisario

Morocco immediately withdrew its ambassador from Tunisia and expelled the Tunisian ambassador to Morocco. The reason for this is a visit to Tunisian President Saïed by the Polisario leader. It is the Western Sahara independence movement with which Morocco has been in conflict for almost half a century.

“Shameless and hostile”, Morocco qualifies the visit of the leader of the Polisario Brahim Ghali to President Saïed shortly before a major international conference on the development of Africa in Tunis. According to the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Moroccan people are deeply hurt. Morocco will therefore not participate in the conference in Tunisia.

Resentment between Morocco and Tunisia stems from the conflict Morocco has had with the Polisario movement since the 1970s. After Spain left the Spanish colony of Western Sahara in 1975, Morocco annexed the region.

Morocco encouraged its own inhabitants to settle there, which led to an armed conflict with the original inhabitants, the Sahrawis, who waged an armed struggle against Morocco under the flag of the Polisario. A ceasefire was reached in 1991 with the help of the United Nations, but the Sahrawi independence movement and Morocco never reached an agreement.

Morocco once promised a self-determination referendum to residents of the phosphate-rich region, but that never happened. Morocco also proposed years ago to make Western Sahara an autonomous region, which would officially make it part of Morocco but give it a high degree of autonomy. The Sahrawis never wanted the latter.

The Netherlands took the floor Last year for Morocco’s autonomy plans, as have several EU countries such as Spain, Morocco’s European neighbor. Algeria, which supports the Polisario, broken recently signed an important friendship treaty with Spain on the question of Western Sahara.