REACTION. Algiers has not yet officially reacted to King Mohammed VI’s speech, but some observers are questioning Rabat’s real desire for appeasement.
“The more interesting is that during such an important annual speech, the king evokes only one file: Algeria! He does not speak of the crisis with Madrid, nor of the European Union, nor of Africa, nor of the Sahel, nor of Palestine, nor of the Pegasus scandal, nor of global warming… ”From the traditional speech delivered by Mohammed VI on the occasion of the Feast of the Throne, Saturday, July 31, an Algerian diplomat contacted by Le Point Afrique and who requested anonymity noted that “more than 40% of the text concerns Algeria”. And to add: “Between diplomats, we call that the diplomacy of the single file. “We renew our sincere invitation to our brothers in Algeria, to work together and without conditions for the establishment of bilateral relations based on trust, dialogue, and good neighborliness, ”King Mohammed VI pleaded in his speech.
“Algiers is still waiting for clarifications”
Speaking of the two countries as “two twin countries which complement each other”, the sovereign invited the Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to “work in unison for the development of the fraternal relations woven by [their] two peoples during years of common struggle”. A senior official in the Algerian state says he is not fooled by this call for reconciliation. “We refuse to be stuck in this tete-a-tete Algeria- Morocco that Rabat wants to impose,” he explains. “Algiers is still waiting for clarifications on the latest drift of the kingdom against us, but the king does not say a word. “By” latest drift “, the official refers to the distribution to members of a conference of non-aligned countries by the Moroccan representative at the UN, in mid-July, of a ” diplomatic note “expressing Moroccan support for the “self-determination” of the “Kabyle people”. “Morocco treats us, at the UN, as an occupying force, then comes to talk to us about trust and good neighborliness ? ! »The diplomat who followed the file wonders at your sarcastic tone. While awaiting the response from Rabat, Algiers recalled its ambassador to Morocco for “consultations”.
The thorny question of borders
“With each speech on the occasion of the Feast of the Throne, the king sends out sweet messages,” recalls the senior executive. “The objective is not to repair the two neighbors, but to present themselves, in front of the Moroccan and international opinions, like the good cop which multiplies the announcements of appeasement vis-a-vis the bad Algerians! The diplomat takes the example of the closure of the land border by Algiers since 1994 following the expulsion of Algerians from Morocco and the decision of Rabat to impose the visa on Algerians after accusing Algeria of ‘be behind an attack in Marrakech.
“No logic can explain the present situation,” proclaimed Mohammed VI. “All the more so as the reasons which led to the closure of the borders are totally outdated and no longer have a reason to exist today. “However, insists the Algerian diplomat,” the conditions of Algeria are known: to stop the hostile campaigns against our country, to fight seriously against drug trafficking and, above all, to stop involving ourselves as belligerents in the question of Western Sahara, which is a dossier on the table of the UN and the African Union.”
An “island diplomacy”
The King of Morocco, in his speech, called “to put an end to the media and diplomatic tensions which are shaking up relations between Morocco and Algeria”. The occasion for the Patriotic Algeria site to wonder if the sovereign “addresses his Minister of Foreign Affairs and the bosses of his intelligence services to put an end to the campaign and the provocations which target Algeria”. “If this is the case, we should expect the imminent dismissal of Nasser Bourita, Mustapha Hammouchi, and Yassine Mansouri. Otherwise, his long, sweet speech will be a sword in the water, ”continues this web journal. “We cannot open the borders with a vis-à-vis who attacks you daily”, declared the Algerian president in his interview with Le Point. in June. “From experience, Morocco holds this kind of conciliatory speech when its island diplomacy, which is deployed only in Algeria or Western Sahara, is found to be broken down”, attests a diplomat. “We know that, if the Biden administration does not want to publicly denounce the commitments of Trump [who recognized the Moroccan character of Western Sahara], Washington will not go further: there will not be, as Rabat wishes, the American consulate in the occupied territories, ”he says. The provinces of southern Morocco, or “occupied territories” of Western Sahara, host 24 consular representations and 18 consulates from African countries. “Mohammed VI inherited the heavy issue of Western Sahara and has not solved it in more than twenty years of reign”, recalls a former senior official of Algerian Foreign Affairs.
