Morocco summons its ambassador to Germany for consultations due to "hostile positions"

Morocco decided to summon its ambassador to Germany for consultations due to "hostile stances that violate the highest interests of the Kingdom," relating in particular to the Western Sahara issue, according to the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, today, Thursday.

The ministry said in a statement that "Germany recorded a negative position on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara, as this hostile stance came in the wake of the American presidential declaration, which recognized Morocco's sovereignty over its Sahara," considering that a "dangerous position that has not been explained yet."

For its part, the German Foreign Ministry said that it "does not understand these accusations," noting that Rabat had not informed it in advance of its decision.

A source from the German Foreign Ministry told "Agence France Presse": "We were surprised by this step, especially since we are making constructive efforts with the Moroccan side to solve the crisis," noting that the ministry "requested clarifications" from the Moroccan authorities.

The decision of the Moroccan authorities comes weeks after their announcement in early March to suspend all forms of communication with the German Embassy in Rabat, without officially clarifying its background.

In addition to the Western Sahara issue, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry explained that the Kingdom's ambassador was summoned in Berlin as well, "with a continuous and relentless fight for the regional role played by Morocco."

She singled out Morocco's role in the Libyan file, by trying to exclude the Kingdom without justification from participating in some regional meetings devoted to this file, such as those held in Berlin last year.

Starting in the fall of 2020, Morocco embraced several rounds of dialogue between the parties to the Libyan crisis at the time, which ended with the announcement of reaching a consensus on the unification of the sovereign positions.

The Moroccan Foreign Ministry’s statement also accused German authorities of “colluding” with “one of the former convicts for committing terrorist acts, including their disclosure of sensitive information provided by the Moroccan security services to their German counterparts,” without mentioning his name.

The issue is most likely related to Mohamed Hajeb, a Moroccan-German citizen who was convicted in 2010 in a "terrorism" case, with a 10-year prison sentence in Morocco, which was later reduced to 5 years.

He returned to Germany after his release, where he became famous for posting videos on YouTube that contained sharp criticism of the Moroccan authorities.

Germany is one of Morocco's most important trading partners, with exports amounting to 1.9 billion euros and imports amounting to 1.3 billion last year.

Before the crisis, it had agreed in late 2020 to provide financial support to Morocco worth 1.3 billion euros, as part of its support for reforming the Moroccan financial system and tackling the Corona virus.

Follow our latest local and sports news, and the latest political and economic developments via Google news