Mauritania Chooses Algeria's Row In Supporting Polisario To Punish Morocco

Mauritania’s decision surprised the participants in the 27th summit of the Arab League, as it placed an official banner in front of the conference hall where the session was held in Nouakchott, to show the map of Morocco without the Western Sahara, contrary to the traditions of the Arab League.

Supervisors of the Arab summit incited, through putting a map for each Arab country separately, and the flag on these maps, as it was remarkable because the map of Morocco was limited to the land without Western Sahara, which have angered the Moroccan authorities, and pleased the Polisario Front, because this is considered an unprecedented victory for the Sahrawis on the Moroccan regime.

It is known, that the Arab League does not recognize the Arab Sahrawi Republic, and even considers it a part of the Moroccan territory, which makes of this diplomatic event a resounding victory, because it comes to a formal activity of the regional organization, which never fails to support Rabat in its dispute with the Western Sahara, not only at the regional level, but also at the international level.

Moroccan party does not yet show a reaction to this matter, noting that Rabat was represented at this summit by the Foreign Minister, Salaheddine Mezouar, but the the Moroccan press did not miss the opportunity, and described the move as “provocative.”

This emerging reaction comes in the wake of the campaign that was led by Morocco to keep the Polisario Front away from the African Union, during the recent AU summit that was hosted by the Rwandan capital, Kigali, in an attempt to return to the continental body that it left before more than three decades, to protest against the accession of the Polisario as a member with full rights to the African Unity Organization at the time.

Moroccan-Mauritanian relationships are noticing a stalemate, especially in the period that followed the death of the historical leader of the Polisario Front, Mohamed Abdelaziz, so Rabat did not like some Mauritanian positions of the Saharawi cause, including sending a senior Mauritanian delegation to participate in the Extraordinary Congress of the Front in Dakhla near Tindouf (Southern Algeria), and sending another delegation before then, to offer condolences on the death of the leader of the Polisario Front.

Followers believe that was happens in the Mauritanian-Moroccan relationships has to do with the return of warm relationships between Algeria and Mauritania, after less than a year on the crisis of exchanging the expulsion of diplomats in the embassies of the two countries, before things return to normal after the visit of the Mauritanian Foreign Minister to Algeria recently.