Mauritanian highest authorities have been multiplying provocative and hostile acts towards their Moroccan neighbor. The latest such act consisted in presenting Morocco’s map amputated of its Sahara on the logo of the 27th Summit of the Arab League, which opened in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, on Monday, July 25.

This is the first time in the history of all the Arab summits that preceded the Nouakchott-hosted meeting that Morocco’s map, truncated from the Sahara, figures on the logo of a gathering of Arab Heads of State and Government.

With the exception of Algeria, which defends fiercely the survival of the separatist Polisario Front, Mauritania is the only member of the Arab League, which recognizes the pseudo “SADR.”

The so-called “SADR,” fabricated by the Algerian regime, is recognized neither by the UN nor by the organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC,) by the European Union nor any other international or regional organization with the exception of the African Union.

For many observers, this is a very provocative and outrageous act that the Summit host country has just committed towards Morocco. And this is not the first such incident. Following the death on May 31 of the head of the Polisario, Mohamed Abdelaziz, Mauritania was the only Arab country, besides Algeria, that decreed a three-day national mourning. Later, it dispatched to the Tindouf camps a large delegation, including the President of the Union of Progress Forces party and several MPs, to attend the Polisario’s extraordinary congress held July 8-9.

Besides, Mauritania, which is seemingly paying allegiance to the Bouteflika regime at the expense of the territorial integrity of neighboring Morocco, refused to join the 28 African countries, including Libya, which addressed a motion to the chairman of the recently held 27th African Summit, requesting the expulsion of “SADR” from the African Union.

So far, Morocco has always shown restraint regarding its Mauritanian neighbor’s provocative acts in a bid not to strain further bilateral relations.

Relations between Rabat and Nouakchott have not been very good for some time because the rulers of Algiers constantly try to sow discord between the Moroccan and Mauritanian brothers.

It seems that Mauritanian leaders do not grasp Algerian maneuvers and do not realize that it is better for them to have a stable neighbor rather than to align on a country that generated many Jihadist Emirs, like the bloodthirsty Mokhtar Blemokhtar, who put to fire and sword northern Mali and other countries in the Sahel.