The head of ECOWAS leaves TICAD at the invitation of the Polisario leader, according to official Moroccan media

MADRID, 27 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The president of Guinea Bissau and current president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Umaro Sissoco Embaló, would have left the summit of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), inaugurated on Saturday in Tunis , to protest against the participation of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, according to diplomatic sources told the official Moroccan news agency MAP.

Morocco and Tunisia have been involved in a diplomatic skirmish in the last few hours, including the invitation of both ambassadors, when Rabat considered that the Tunisian authorities decided to unilaterally invite the Polisario leader and emblem of Saharawi independence in the face of Moroccan sovereign claims.

According to the MAP note, the departure of the Guinean president "reinforces the position of a large number of African countries, including Senegal, which has regretted that this TICAD meeting was marked by the absence of Morocco, a prominent member of the African Union, for lack of consensus on an issue of representation".

Morocco finally decided not to participate in the summit due to the invitation extended to Ghali "which flagrantly confirms his (Tunisia's) hostility towards the Kingdom".

Tunisia has recalled that the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) has already attended the Tokyo Summit for African Development (TICAD) and other international forums, such as the meeting of the European Union with the African Union held in February in Brussels.

Morocco has replied that, according to the established rules, Tunisia had no right to establish a unilateral invitation process and that a note verbale from Japan did not include Ghali among the guests, according to a subsequent statement from the Moroccan Foreign Ministry.

The Tunisian government has defended its "neutrality" in the conflict over Western Sahara, a position that it has promised will not change until the parties reach some kind of agreement. He also recalled the historical friendly relations with the Moroccan people.

Rabat also replied to this, expressing "serious and legitimate doubts about Tunisia's support for the political process and the United Nations resolutions" on Western Sahara, before criticizing the official reception of Ghali as "an act of hostility as flagrant as gratuitous" that "has nothing to do with the Tunisian tradition of hospitality".