ECOWAS SUMMIT: 'ISRAEL RETURNS TO THE AFRICAN CONTINENT' - BENJAMIN NETANYAHU

The 51st Ordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) opened in Monrovia on Sunday with a number of topics.

Some of the topics which including " Morocco's application for membership and observer status in Tunisia,".

This opening ceremony took place with the "controversial" presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, who announced "Israel's return to the African continent". The return will be concretized with the Africa-Israel summit scheduled for late October in Lomé, Togo.

Morocco's accession proposal, Tunisia's request for observer status and an agreement with Mauritania are on the agenda of the summit. The Heads of State and Government will examine the dossier submitted by Morocco to join this regional grouping as a full member. The political decision will have to be taken during this session.

Events organized in the margins of the Summit will include the signing of the Dakar-Abidjan Highway Treaty, a declaration by Liberian political parties competing for the upcoming presidential elections, and a joint ECOWAS-Israel declaration.

A major ceremony of the Regional Electric Power Project, including Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, is also scheduled.

The reports of the mid-term ECOWAS statutory meetings that have been held in the country over the past few days, In particular the reports of the Ad Hoc Ministerial Committee on Institutional Reforms and the end of the statutory functions; The 78th ordinary session of the Council of Ministers of ECOWAS; The 38th ordinary meeting of the Mediation and Security Council and the interim report of 2017 of ECOWAS.

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who will assume the rotating presidency of ECOWAS after the summit of the sub-regional organization held in Dakar, Senegal, on 4 June 2016, will be replaced during this work.

Liberia is hosting this major international conference for the first time in 38 years. Indeed, in July 1979, Liberia hosted a major pan-African conference, when President William R. Tolbert was elected President of the Organization of African Unity (OAU, now AU).

But since the creation of the sub-regional organization on May 28, 1975, this is the first time that Liberia has hosted an ECOWAS summit.