Morocco blasts Egypt for hosting Polisario members

Morocco has blasted Egypt for hosting a delegation last week of members of the Western Sahara’s Polisario Front at a joint Arab-African parliamentary congress in Sharm El-Sheikh.

Five-members of the Polisario delegation took part in celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Egyptian parliament which took place alongside a joint session of the Arab Parliamentary Union and the African Parliamentary Union, Al-Masry Al-Youm reported.

Khatri Addouh, chairperson of the Sahrawi National Council, headed the delegation along with vice-president of the Pan-African Parliament, Suilma Hay Emhamed Al-Kaid. The delegation met with heads of Arab and African parliaments including an unofficial meeting with Egypt’s speaker of parliament, Ali Abdel Ala, the report said.

Egypt has denied formally inviting the group saying: “Egypt is just the host country. The African Parliament is the only party eligible to extend invitations.”

Morocco has been locked in a Sovereignty war over the Western Sahara which is a territory disputed between the Moroccan government and the Polisario Front, a Sahrawi national liberation movement for the independence and the sovereignty of the Sahrawi people.

The dispute has been defined by sporadic fighting between Morocco and the Polisario Front since 1976 when Spain ended its colonial administration of Western Sahara.

The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) has been the main body monitoring the ceasefire since September 1991.

Moroccan Armed Forces last week thwarted an incursion on Moroccan territory by Polisario militias, aided by some Algerian soldiers, reports say. The Polisario militias were assisted by six Algerian soldiers and were arrested in the Guerguarat region.

The men moving in military jeeps were caught in possession of military equipment including machine guns and small cannons.