“Major Setback” For The Moroccan Makhzen At The Tokyo International Conference “TICAD 9”

The Sahrawi Foreign Minister, Mr. Mohamed Yeslem Beissat, affirmed that Morocco suffered a “major setback” at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development “TICAD 9”, which began its  proceedings on Wednesday in Yokohama, Japan, not only because of the failure of its attempts to prevent the participation of the Sahrawi Republic, but also because the participants refused to delete a phrase confirming partnerships with African Union member states.

In a statement to “Waj”, Mr. Beissat explained that Morocco tried “repeatedly” to delete a paragraph from the “Yokohama Declaration” on the partnership between Japan and the African Union member states, where it strenuously sought to delete the phrase “member states” which was repeated several times, but it was resisted by most participants and this phrase was retained in the final declaration.

Mr. Beissat added that what happened represents a “major setback for Morocco and its maneuvers aimed at undermining the rights of the Sahrawi Republic as a founding member of the African Union”, and also constitutes “the failure of its attempts to prevent the participation of Western Sahara in the summit, but also the rejection of the strange ideas it advocates regarding the marginalization of the continental union”.

The Minister highlighted that the Sahrawi Republic is participating in this conference with a high-level delegation led by the Prime Minister, Mr. Hamoudi Bouchraya Beyoun, stressing that this comes within the framework of its commitment to fulfill all its duties towards the activities of the African Union with foreign partners.

He pointed out that this event is characterized by the Japanese host having learned the lesson from past experiences regarding the “thuggery” of the Moroccan occupation, as happened last year in the preparatory ministerial council for the summit when the Moroccan delegation assaulted its Sahrawi counterpart in a moment documented by all international press.

In this regard, he said that the Japanese authorities “did not leave any opportunity for the Moroccan delegation today at the summit and provided close protection for the Sahrawi delegation and for the plaque bearing the name of the Sahrawi Arab Republic, as the Moroccans have not been able and will not be able to hijack it no matter how hard they try”.

For his part, the Deputy Representative of the Sahrawi Republic to Ethiopia and the African Union, Mr. Maalainin Lakhal, asserted that the Moroccan occupation “tried by all means to obstruct this participation, but the clarity of the African Union’s vision and its insistence on respecting decisions related to partnerships prevented that”, stressing that the continental body “refuses to submit to dictates, and also rejects all attempts to exclude founding and member states from these meetings”.

The latter added that this participation “proves once again that the Sahrawi Republic is an irreversible continental and international reality and that it is a reality imposed by historical truth and legal force, and Morocco must coexist and interact with it”.

After the failure of its attempts to exclude the Sahrawi Republic from this summit, just as it failed to exclude it from the African Union despite the policy of bribery, “thuggery”, and buying consciences, Morocco finds itself every time in a real dilemma on how to deal with this problem that caused it a resounding scandal last year at the Tokyo meeting, where one of its “diplomats” tried to steal the Sahrawi Republic’s plaque from its representative there, in a scene that enshrined the policy of “thuggery” which has become a registered trademark in the work of the Makhzen’s diplomacy.

The incident of last year in Japan was not the only one in the Moroccan clash with the countries participating in the African-Japanese summit, as the Makhzen boycotted the conference in Tunisia in 2022 when the Tunisian President, Kais Saied, received his Sahrawi counterpart Ibrahim Ghali, which led him to attack Tunisia and its institutions and cause a diplomatic crisis between the two parties whose repercussions are still ongoing.