President Saïed  Handover of Tunisia to the Algerian "Pouvoir"

By officially welcoming the Algeria-supported notorious separatist leader, Brahim Ghali, the Tunisian President, Kaïs Saïed, crossed the line with Morocco, a nation that considers the Western Sahara issue a sacred national cause. 

Morocco recalled its ambassador to Tunisia on Friday, August 25, 2022, after Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed received the head of the Polisario Front movement, an Algeria-backed separatist group that is desperately seeking independence for Western Sahara, a territory that Morocco has ruled over for ten centuries and regards as its own since its liberation from Spanish colonialism in 1975. 



Morocco said Tunisia's decision to invite Brahim Ghali (who is accused by individuals and NGOs, of rape, of crimes against humanity and of being the mastermind behind the assassination of scores of Spanish fishermen in the Canary Islands seas in the 1980s) to a Japanese development summit for Africa that Tunis is hosting this weekend, was "a grave and unprecedented act that deeply hurts the feelings of the Moroccan people". The uproar and reactions from Moroccans everywhere have been huge and very strong: thousands took to social media platforms to denounce the unfriendly gesture from an otherwise friendly nation, linked to Morocco by strong historical, political, and cultural ties. 
 
The Western Sahara issue is a highly sensitive issue for Moroccans and a question of life and death for most of them. Most of them consider it part of their national fabric and their history and it is the lenses through which they regard and gauge their relationship with the outside world. 

What explains the anger of Moroccans, both government and public opinion, is that President Kaïs Saïed’s gesture is not an isolated event nor an accidental diplomatic blunder but a culmination of what they consider as unfriendly gestures since his coming to power in 2019. In taking to social media, Moroccans rightly claim that Morocco has taken serious and sincere initiatives to enhance cooperation with Tunisia in various fields, especially the messages addressed by King Mohammed VI, to the Tunisian president with the aim of promoting bilateral relations and building the Arab Maghreb Union. 
 
Moroccans also evoke how the King of Morocco had visited Tunisia in 2016, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on a museum and a beach in the north African country, attacks that brought the tourism sector, one of the pillars of the Tunisian economy, to its knees. The King showed real solidarity with the Tunisian government and people and roamed on foot the streets of Tunis and took pictures with ordinary citizens to send a message to the whole world that Tunisia was safe.  
 
Others said that the King extended an invitation to the Tunisian president to visit Morocco, during the phone call that took place between the leaders of the two countries, on January 16, 2020, but that invitation has remained without an answer till now. When Tunisia experienced a surge in Covid-19 cases in the summer of 2021, Morocco swiftly sent medical supplies on July 13, 2021 to help ease the crisis. 
Despite all of these goodwill gestures on the part of Morocco, Moroccans, who took to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, noted with dismay, how in recent years, Tunisia has issued a series of negative signals and unfriendly attitudes towards the Kingdom of Morocco. The Tunisian president put a halt to all aspects of cooperation with Morocco. Official interaction with Morocco was drastically reduced: no visits from Government ministers and officials for bilateral meetings or multilateral events organized in Morocco. On the other hand, Moroccans note with consternation an intensification of official movements in both directions between Tunis and Algiers. 
Moroccans were shocked last year, when Tunisia adopted, on October 29, 2021, a negative and unfriendly position in the Security Council during the vote on Resolution No. 2602 on the Moroccan Sahara. The Tunisian stance, which contradicted the historical position of Tunisia since the inception of this conflict, was surprising not only for Morocco, but also for the Arab voice in the UN Security Council.
 
The Government, Moroccan political parties and the public opinion at large, consider the Tunisian president’s invitation and official reception of the notoriously separatist leader, on the occasion of Tunisia’s hosting of the Japan-Africa Cooperation Forum (TICAD), despite the objection of Japan, a clear violation of the preparation processes and established rules, and a hostile act that harms the strong and solid relations that have always linked the Moroccan and Tunisian peoples, who are normally united by shared history and destiny. 
 
What explains the Tunisian President’s cold attitude and unfriendly gestures towards Morocco?

Most observers know that he is under the spell of the Algerian regime, known by its French name, as le pouvoir: an oligarchy of generals and octogenarian officials that stifle the freedom of expression and protest in Algeria, engage in “lucrative” arms and oil deals, and try to buy the “friendship” of bordering nations only to isolate its longtime rival and nemesis, the Kingdom of Morocco.
 
Morocco’s economic, political and diplomatic successes are a source of anxiety, pain, anger, jealousy, envy, frustration and wrath among this corrupt club of Algerian oligarchs. The Algerian Press Agency spends 80 % of its time fabricating fakeness on Morocco; university professors have been forbidden from dealing with their counterparts in Moroccan universities; land borders are closed since 1994. Last year, out of the blue, Algeria cut relations with Morocco and banned the latter’s planes from using its airspace in violation of international civil aviation laws. It also suspended the natural gas pipeline that goes through Morocco and that supplies Spain and Europe with the much-needed energy source. The Algerian oligarchs are ready to weaponize gas and airspace and forsake the interests of the Algerian people just to create nuisance for Morocco. This summer, they preferred that fires continue to burn Algerian forests and homes than ask Morocco and Spain, who possess specialized fire-extinguishing aircraft, for help. 

The Algerian Army employs hundreds of bloggers whose duty is to spread fake news on Morocco. The Algerian ex-Foreign Affairs minister, Abdelkader Messahel had said, in January 2018, that the Moroccan national airline company’s (Royal Air Maroc) successes in Africa are due to its transportation of drugs. The whole world laughed at him, but his fake statement shows to what lengths even high level officials, including President Tebboune himslef, can go to vilify Morocco. Algeria’s national complex seems to be Morocco. It borders on national hysteria and collective pathology, especially among the élite that is at the mercy of the Army generals. 
 
It is clear that Tunisia, weakened by the revolution, terrorist attacks, political strife and an ineffective political élite has shown in recent years a leniency towards Algeria and a bias in favor of its views on regional issues; this shift has been happening sometimes as a result of pressure and blackmail, and sometimes by using the lure of financial aid from Algiers. The Tunisian President needs all the aid he can get to carry out his ambition to transform his rule to a populist autocracy as can be seen from the Constitution that has just been adopted and which gives the President wide powers and makes the democratically elected institutions irrelevant and useless. 
 
Algeria agreed to a long-term loan of $ 300 million during President Tebboune’s visit to Tunis in December 2021. Algeria is trying to exploit the political, economic and security situation in Tunisia to drag the latter to its orbit, in a desperate attempt to isolate Morocco from its regional environment. The signing of the "Carthage Declaration" by the Algerian and Tunisian presidents reflected a step towards burying any hope of reviving the Arab Maghreb Union. Algeria is keen on establishing an alternative regional framework without the Kingdom of Morocco. The Pouvoir in Algiers is trying to exploit the difficult domestic and international political position of Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed by showering on him multiple financial, energy and humanitarian aid mechanisms, all with the aim of shoring up the Pouvoir’s influence in Tunisia.
 
Even when it comes to the Libyan crisis, Tunisia has over the last few years complied with Algeria's position that consists of unilaterally finding a solution in Libya by trying to create a framework that includes only Libya's direct neighboring countries without Morocco. The intention, of course, has been to undermine Morocco's sincere efforts in Libya and the Skhirate conferences mechanism. 

Algeria’s ploys, games and agitations are common and known to everyone in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Tunisia has lived through a history of Algerian blackmail since the sixties. But it has learned how to keep those designs at bay while cultivating good relations with more moderate and internationally responsible countries like Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi, the UAE and others. Faithful to his putschist tendency, and by flirting with separatism, President Essaïd is handing over independent Tunisia on a silver platter to the Algerian Pouvoir. I am sure the Tunisians do not like it. But when they will do something about it, I hope it will not be too late.