In an interview broadcast on Qatari channel Al Jazeera on January the 23rd, Moroccan Foreign Minister hinted at the fact that Rabat had serious reservations about Mohammed Bin Salman's recent tour to Arab countries. On Thursday, Saudi channel Al Arabiya fired back at the Kingdom through a video on the Western Sahara conflict. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman finally reacted to the interview conducted by Qatari channel Al Jazeera with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita. The Saudi authorities have chosen news channel Al Arabiya to fulfill this mission. Commenting on the recent briefing hosted by the UN Security Council and chaired by the UN Secretary-General's Personal Envoy Horst Köhler, the Saudi TV channel criticized Morocco's stance on the Western Sahra territorial dispute. In a video that draws the lines of the dispute, Al Arabiya preferred to show tanks in the middle of the desert, without referring to the slightest sign of development. The short video presenting the conflict even put on equal footing the kingdom and the Polisario Front, mentioning the «Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic» several times. Nasser Bourita's interview on Al Jazeera This video says a lot about the «diplomatic crisis» between Rabat and Riyadh, especially as Saudi Arabia was the first country to show support for Morocco when it comes to the Western Sahara question. A week ago, Al Hilal football club, headed by Saudi Adviser Turki Al Sheikh, has again published on its website a map for Morocco that doesn't include its southern provinces. This comes after Nasser Bourita told Al Jazeera in an interview, broadcast on January the 23rd, that «Morocco's participation to the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen has changed». The Minister explained that this change was based on Morocco's commitments, stressing that the decision was taken after the Kingdom «assessed the situation in Yemen, including the humanitarian side». In the same interview, Bourita hinted at the fact that Rabat had had serious reservations about Mohammed Bin Salman's recent tour to Arab countries, including Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain and UAE.
