Tunisia Urged to Clarify Stance on Western Sahara Amid Diplomatic Tension with Morocco

"I wouldn’t say there is a diplomatic crisis between Morocco and Tunisia, but rather an incident. What happened was a ’slip of the tongue’," said Ahmed Ounaïes, a career diplomat and former Foreign Minister, on the Midi Show program. According to him, "Ethically speaking, Morocco had to react".

He recalled that King Mohammed VI had, in a recent speech, called on all countries, especially those of the Greater Maghreb, to clarify their position on the Western Sahara issue. "Tunisia too must express its position, although the communiqué published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on August 21 states that Tunisia is committed to its neutrality," said the former Tunisian head of diplomacy.

To get out of this diplomatic crisis born of the invitation of Polisario leader Brahim Ghali to the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) held on August 27 and 28 in Tunis, Ahmed Ounaïes recommends that the Tunisian authorities task a diplomat to go to Morocco or organize a press conference, to convey the official position of Tunisia on what happened.

According to the Tunisian diplomat, the President of the Republic, Kais Saïed, did not take sides at the expense of another. "Certainly, Saïed has only visited Algeria and Libya, but this does not reveal a problem with Morocco," he estimated, adding that "there must be evidence to say that Saïed has taken sides".