US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to strengthen Washington’s strategic partnership with Morocco and the United Arab Emirates during a visit to Rabat on Tuesday amid tensions in the Maghreb and the Gulf.
Mr. Blinken was received for nearly three hours by his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, the day after an unprecedented meeting in Israel with this interlocutor and three other Arab ministers.
The two heads of diplomacy discussed the war in Ukraine and its “disastrous” food consequences, bilateral and regional security, accelerated normalization between Morocco and Israel and human rights.
With regard to the Ukrainian conflict, Antony Blinken expressed doubts on the “really serious” of Russia after the announcement of “substantial” progress in the negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul.
“There is what Russia says and what Russia does. We are concentrating on what she is doing,” Mr. Blinken declared during a press conference alongside his Moroccan counterpart.
The Secretary of State also assured that Washington was examining ways “to help reduce” the socio-economic impact of the conflict, in the face of the surge in raw materials and the risk of shortage of wheat, “in particular on the most vulnerable populations.
According to the State Department, Mr. Blinken’s visit is to strengthen “a strategic partnership rooted in common interests for peace, security and prosperity” in the region.
As expected, the Western Sahara file, the priority of Moroccan diplomacy, figured prominently on the menu of the meeting with Mr. Bourita.
Mr. Blinken reiterated American support for the autonomy plan – “serious, credible and realistic” – presented by Morocco to settle the “dispute” which has pitted it for decades against the Sahrawi separatists supported by Algiers.
At the same time, he expressed Washington’s support for the UN Secretary General’s personal envoy, Staffan de Mistura, and for the “political process” under the aegis of the United Nations.
But the Biden administration has so far been less eager than the previous one – that of Donald Trump – who promised in December 2020 to open a consulate in Dakhla, Western Sahara, recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over this territory.
For his part, Nasser Bourita urged Europe to “get out of the comfort zone in which people only support a process without supporting a solution” and, like Spain recently, to endorse the initiative of autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty.
“Strategic talk”
Also in Morocco, Antony Blinken met at the end of the afternoon the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed ben Zayed Al-Nahyan, whose relations with his traditional American ally have been “set to the test” after a series of disagreements.
“The partnership between our countries really matters,” assured Mr. Blinken, warmly welcomed by the prince in his residence near Rabat.
Like Israel, the Emirates and Morocco are united against Iran, while the United States seeks to revive the international nuclear agreement concluded in 2015 with Tehran and supposed to prevent it from acquiring the atomic bomb in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.
In addition, the Emirates are part of a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which has been helping the government of Yemen since 2015, at war against the Houthi rebels, close to Iran.
“We are determined to do everything we can to help you defend yourself effectively […] against Houthi terrorist attacks,” Blinken said.
The US Secretary of State will end his regional tour on Wednesday with a stop in Algeria, Morocco’s rival in North Africa and Russia’s ally.
In Algiers, he must continue his discussions on regional security cooperation – in particular in the Sahel – and the Ukrainian crisis.
He could also mention the reopening of the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline, which would reduce the dependence of European Union countries on Russian gas.
This pipeline serving Spain and passing through Morocco was closed in October by Algeria following the severance of diplomatic relations with Rabat in August 2021.
