Assahafa.com
If King Mohammed VI’s speech on Tuesday night confirmed anything, it is the fact that the Moroccan sovereign looks to remain faithful to the wise policies his father, King Hassan II, and his grandfather, King Mohammed V, adopted towards Algeria. “I wish to reiterate my resolve to remain open to our regional environment, especially our immediate neighbors and the relationship with our brothers and sisters in Algeria,” the King announced in his multidimensional speech. “My position, as the King of Morocco, is as clear as it is consistent: the Algerian people are our brothers and sisters; they share deep-rooted human and historical ties with the Moroccan people. The bonds of language, religion, geography, and a common destiny unite us.”
Relatedly, what transpired from such a dense, multilayered royal address to Morocco in celebration of King Moammed VI’s 26th year at the helm of the country is Rabat’s growing calm and assurance as it gradually but boldly lays the groundwork for the coming decisive denouement in favor of full Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara. It is now a truism in diplomatic circles that Morocco has over the past ten years achieved significant unprecedented, unparalleled successes in support of its territorial integrity. Or, as I have argued elsewhere, the central lesson to glean from developments in the Sahara dossier since the December 2020 US recognition is that Morocco is gradually moving closer to irreversibly settling the dispute over the Sahara dispute in its favor.
A decade of unprecedented diplomatic gains in the struggle for the Sahara
Indeed, following that game-defining US endorsement of the Moroccan position on the Western Sahara chessboard, Morocco took its diplomatic prowess to new heights by convincing other major international powers, namely Spain, France, the United Kingdom, and Portugal, to support its autonomy plan as the only solution to end the Sahara conflict. By contrast, Algerian diplomacy has experienced an unprecedented decline and a series of setbacks over the same period.
Since Morocco’s return to the African Union, in particular, Algerian diplomacy has been basically clueless and rudderless while Morocco laid brick after brick to consolidate its newfound continental leadership, deepen its strategic continental depth, and – ultimately – ensure that the regional balance of power remain permanently, dramatically shifted in its favor.
intensify its relentless propaganda campaign to demonize Morocco.
There are three main reasons why the regime would be unwilling to respond positively to King Mohammed VI. First, reconciliation with Morocco would mean that the Algerian regime, devoid of political legitimacy and weighing heavily on the Algerian people for six decades, would lose its only political card: the demonization of Morocco and its portrayal as an existential threat to Algeria’s unity, stability and security. This alleged threat has been used to rally the Algerian people around the military regime.
Second, since gaining independence, Algeria has viewed its relations with Morocco as a zero-sum game, and the fomentation of separatism in southern Morocco has been the ideal means to achieve that goal. Imbued with the megalomaniacal belief that Algeria was the rightful hegemon of the Maghreb region, Houari Boumediene harbored ambitions to give his country access to the Atlantic Ocean. As outlined in a 1977 CIA memo, by establishing an independent state in Western Sahara, Algeria would not cut off Morocco from its African hinterland, thereby deepening its isolation and depriving it of the region’s natural resources, but it would also secure an outlet for the region’s natural resources (mainly iron ore), which are trapped in Tindouf.
Third, and definitely more importantly, the regime fears that Morocco might raise the issue of the Eastern Sahara once the Western Sahara dispute is resolved. As a result, I expect the Algerian regime to throw all that remains of its dwindling geopolitical weight and regional (or ideological) appeal behind maintaining the Sahara conflict in its current state. Ultimately, Algiers continues to view preventing a definitive resolution in Morocco’s favor as a political insurance policy to preempt any future Moroccan attempt to revive the issue of the Eastern Sahara border.
Source: Morocco word news
