Former Tunisian Diplomat Calls Polisario Reception ‘Miscalculation’ Further ‘Destabilizing’ Maghreb

The Tunisian president’s official welcome to the polisario leader is a “miscalculation” that “further destabilizes the Maghreb region, said former Tunisian diplomat Elyes Kasri. This reception was undeniably “a miscalculation at best” and “an additional destabilization” to an already-tense Maghreb region, said the Tunisian foreign ministry’s former Director General for the Americas and Asia in an article published on Kapitalis. “Now, we find ourselves […] in a serious escalation with Morocco that will accentuate the instability of the Maghreb region and exacerbate the international isolation of Tunisia, by intensifying an unequal tête-à-tête with Algeria, which has priorities that do not necessarily coincide with ours,” he lamented. He further added that “Tunisia has thus compromised its ability to mediate and ease tensions in the Magheb,” adding that this has caused “a controversy with Morocco and has splashed the Japanese organizer and many African delegations and the Senegalese presidency of the African Union.”