By Majid Morceli
San Francisco- Algeria will remember the last twelve months as one of its most disappointing years in its history of trying to destabilize and weaken Morocco.
Algeria’s hope of seeing Morocco at odds with its strategic ally, France, has been shattered. Soon after Morocco protested France’s judiciary sending police officers to Morocco’s ambassador residence, Algeria rolled the red carpet out for France’s government officials, which then “rewarded” Algeria with a meager investment of $49 million to build a vehicle assembly line. This investment is an insult to the Algerian people who have seen their leaders squander billions on keeping alive the enemies of Morocco instead of working for them.
The Algerian regime even allowed French judges into Algeria to investigate the unsolved murder of seven French monks in 1996. Something deemed unthinkable before Morocco’s scuffle with France. To Algeria’s dismay, France and Morocco have resolved their differences, and France’s support for Morocco’s autonomy proposal for the Sahara remains intact.
Just when Algeria believed that it could bring Egypt’s president Abdelfatah EL-sissi to form an Algiers-Cairo axis to isolate Morocco, Morocco simply released couple of video clips on National Television describing Egypt’s president as coup leader. That simple move brought Egypt's foreign minister to Morocco to reaffirm Egypt's attachment to Morocco's territorial unity.
Algeria even resorted to “hacking” to try to weaken Morocco through “Chris Coleman’s” leaking of Morocco’s foreign ministry communications to the world in hope of undermining Moroccan diplomacy. Instead, the leaks showed to the world, and to Moroccans especially, the great deal of effort and resiliency that abound to defend Morocco’s territorial integrity. Moroccan diplomats showed an extremely commendable fortitude anticipating and rebuffing everything Algeria threw at them.
When Morocco refused to receive Christopher Ross unless he submitted in writing the specifics of his mission, Algeria miscalculated that it could capitalize on this refusal and tag Morocco as an entity that defies the international community. Instead, the King of Morocco received a call from the UN secretary imploring him to receive the UN envoy.
Algeria hosted several African leaders to get them to side with its doctrine, and most of them -except for Dictator Mugabe who is banned from ever setting foot in Europe and South Africa’s Zuma another African thief who used government funds to build himself a mansion in the name of security - basically repeated what the UN had been saying: there should be a mutually acceptable solution.
Algeria and Morocco’s foreign ministers were both in Washington on April 8 and 9 to meet with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry as part of their strategic dialogue. Algeria has consistently claimed that it is not part of the Sahara conflict, but it never misses an opportunity to make it the highlight of any visit or encounter with foreign dignitaries. Sadly for Algeria, the joint statement by Kerry and Morocco’s foreign minister Salaheddine Mezouar poured cold water on Algeria’s evil plan to diminish the value of the autonomy proposed by the kingdom of Morocco.
“The United States’ policy toward the Western Sahara has remained consistent for many years. The United States has made clear that Morocco’s autonomy plan is serious, realistic, and credible, and that it represents a potential approach that could satisfy the aspirations of the people in the Western Sahara to run their own affairs in peace and dignity,” reads the Morocco-U.S joint statement
he latest UN report is devastating to Algeria, which spent significant financial resources in bribing African leaders and others to get involved in the matter. Instead, the European Anti-Fraud office (OLAF) forced the UN secretary general for the first time to ask Algeria to count the Sahraoui population in Tindouf, the same population from which it embezzled donations.
Algeria’s funds from oil sales fell by $US11.6 billion in January, the largest monthly drop in a quarter of century. At this rate, it will empty the reserves in 15 months. Instead on focusing on the losses and seeing how it can turn the tide, Algeria chooses to ignore what’s coming and instead focus on destroying its neighbor.
The regime should count its blessings because the Algerian people are too busy trying to make ends meet. Understandably, the events of the 1990s forced Algerians to give a chance to this regime in hope that their lives and futures would improve. Sadly, Algerians will have to wait a long time for a change. The regime chose to concentrate on undermining Morocco instead of bolstering the people of Algeria.
This is by no means a victory for Morocco. Moroccan officials should not celebrate; instead, they should start implementing the autonomy plan with or without the UN. The king has already stated that the Sahara will remain in Morocco until the end of time, and there is no doubt that the Moroccan people support the same vision. Why wait? Waiting only gives the enemies of Morocco more ammunition to be used against Morocco.
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