Within one week, Nouakchott organized two official receptions for representatives of the Polisario Front. One of them was with the President of Mauritania, Ould Sheikh al-Ghazwani, who met with an official of the separatist organization and gave him a message from the leader of the separatist front.
The Mauritanian news agency reported that Al-Ghazwani had received a message from the head of the Polisario, which described him as “Your Excellency the President.” This expression sets a precedent in the official institutions of the southern neighbor of the kingdom, as the leader of the separatists is often called the General Secretary of the Polisario Front.
And the official news agency reported that the message was conveyed by the so-called “His Excellency the Minister, Adviser to the President on Diplomatic Affairs” Mohamed Salem Ould Al-Salik during a reception hosted by “His Excellency the President of the Republic, during which the relations of cooperation between” two brotherly countries.
Nouakchott tried to correct this mistake by receiving the Moroccan ambassador, who unsuccessfully tried to meet Mauritanian President Ould Cheikh al-Ghazwani, as he found only the foreign minister in his reception, in contrast to the separatist representative, who had the honor of the presidential reception.
Nabil Al-Andalusi, head of the Maghreb Center for Studies and Strategic Studies, said that Mohamed Salem Marzouk, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Mauritanian Abroad, received a delegate from the Polisario Front, timed to coincide with a meeting hosted by the Mauritanian government. himself an official with the Moroccan ambassador in Nouakchott.
Al-Andalusi explained in a statement to the online newspaper Hespress that the meeting discussed the relationship of cooperation between the two countries and ways to strengthen them in the interests of the two peoples, noting that this is a clear message from the Mauritanian government. side that Mauritania wants to remain neutral and remain at the same distance from the two sides of the conflict in the Moroccan Sahara file.
The head of the Maghreb Center for Studies and Strategic Studies added that this is how the Mauritanian Foreign Ministry defined its overall framework to support the efforts of the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary General Staffan de Mistura and encourage the initiatives of the MINURSO mission in this regard.
The representative stated that Mauritania was committed to maintaining good relations with both Morocco and Algeria. This is what motivates him to stay in the gray zone, as a safe zone for Nouakchott, which guarantees him in the current circumstances that neither side will lose.
