The Moroccan Foreign Ministry said that it recalled its ambassador in Tunisia “immediately for consultations”, and suspended the country’s participation in the eighth TICAD summit being held in Tunisia.
Morocco summoned its ambassador to Tunisia, Dr. Hassan Tarek, for consultations, just an hour after Tunisian President Kais Saied received the leader of the separatist Polisario Front, Ibrahim Ghali, at Tunis-Carthage airport.
A statement of the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a copy of which was received by Al-Arabiya.net, said that “the reception that the Tunisian head of state allocated to the leader of the separatist militia is a dangerous and unprecedented act that deeply offends the feelings and living forces of the Moroccan people,” as the statement put it.
The statement added that “Tunisia has recently doubled down on negative attitudes and behaviors towards the Kingdom of Morocco and its higher interests.”
The statement stressed that the position of the Tunisian government “within the framework of the Japan-Africa Cooperation Forum (TICAD) came to blatantly confirm its hostile stance,” the statement said.
The Moroccan official statement stated that “Tunisia decided, in contradiction to Japan’s position, and in violation of the preparation process and the applicable rules, to unilaterally invite the separatist entity.”
And in the first official Moroccan reaction, the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced “not to participate in the eighth summit of the (TICAD) summit, which will be held in Tunisia on August 27 and 28, and to immediately summon His Majesty’s ambassador to Tunisia for consultations” in response to “this hostile position, which harms the fraternal relations that were linked to Always between the two countries,” according to the statement.
Morocco considered that “this decision does not affect, in any way, the strong and solid ties that exist between the Moroccan and Tunisian peoples, who share a common history and destiny, nor the Kingdom of Morocco’s attachment to Africa’s interests and its work within the African Union, nor the Kingdom’s commitment within the framework of (TICAD). ” According to the statement.