Algérie-Maroc : vers la rupture totale des relations diplomatiques ?
Depuis 1994, les relations entre l’Algérie et le Maroc n’ont jamais été à si peu de distance de la rupture. Les relations entre les deux pays ont quasiment atteint le point de non-retour.
www.tsa-algerie.com
Algeria-Morocco: towards the total rupture of diplomatic relations?
TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH
Politics By: Ryad Hamadi August 22, 2021 at 9:18 pm
Since 1994, relations between Algeria and Morocco have never been so close to rupture. The proliferation of what Algeria describes as "hostile acts" has already prompted the recall of its ambassador to Rabat on July 18.
A month later, on August 18, the High Security Council (HCS) announced the “review of relations” and the strengthening of security surveillance at the borders with Morocco.
What happened 27 years ago is in no way comparable to the successive acts we have witnessed in recent weeks. At the height of the terrorist violence in Algeria, the Moroccan authorities rushed after an attack in Marrakech and imposed visas on Algerians and even French people of Algerian origin.
Algeria reacted strongly by deciding, among other measures, to close the land border between the two countries. The measure is still in force despite relentless calls from Morocco to lift it.
Relations between the two countries have hardly ever been good since then, but what has been happening since at least mid-July far exceeds in seriousness the imposition of an entry visa on nationals of a neighboring country.
On July 14, Morocco, through its representation at the United Nations, formally supported a movement working for the division of Algeria, in this case the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia ( MAK), classified as a “terrorist organization” by the Algerian authorities two months earlier.
Further actions will confirm that this was not a simple attempt to counterbalance Algerian support for the Polisario Front. In the process, the world press unveiled Morocco's involvement in a vast espionage operation targeting mainly Algeria and some of its senior political and military officials.
The provocation too much
Morocco had somehow worsened its case when the Israeli prime minister chose Moroccan territory to designate Algeria as a source of "concern" for his country Israel and its new ally Morocco. The accusation of "rapprochement" with Iran is an almost explicit threat that could not leave Algiers without a firm reaction.
By allying with Israel, which it is trying to lead into a "suicidal" adventure against Algeria, to use the terms of the Algerian Foreign Ministry, Morocco has "burned its ships" so to speak and left very little chance for possible relations between the two neighboring countries to regain at least their level of a few months ago.
On August 18, the Algerian High Security Council accused Morocco of having provided “aid and support” to two outlawed Algerian organizations presented as responsible for the latest fires which ravaged certain regions of the country, and indicated that all this “required review relations ”with Morocco.
For observers, it becomes almost certain that things will not stop there and it is not the honeyed speeches of King Mohamed VI that will change anything, his fine words are no longer taken seriously due to the fact that
Algeria does not only have the closed border as a lever. On Saturday August 21, by denying statements by a Moroccan official, Algerian sources suggested that the contract for the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline which transports Algerian gas to Spain via Morocco may not be renewed at the end of its expiration on October 31st.
The weakening of Arab mediation
On the diplomatic front, Algeria recalled its ambassador to Rabat the day after Ambassador Omar Hilale, a month ago. The next step should logically be the reduction of the respective diplomatic representation at the level of charge d'affaires, but observers do not exclude seeing Algiers, given the seriousness of the grievances held against Rabat, go directly to the extreme extent of the total breakdown of relations with Morocco.
According to our sources, all options are now on the table, including that of the complete severing of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Relations between Algeria and Morocco have almost reached the point of no return. In Algiers, some even think that the era of King Mohamed VI is over.
This inexorable deterioration of relations between the two neighbors is accentuated by the regional context, marked by the weakening of Arab mediation, which previously intervened to mitigate the effects of hostile statements on relations between Algeria and Morocco.
Today, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the two Arab powers, ruled by princes who have a different vision of inter-Arab relations, and especially for the latter who has become a leading supporter of normalization between the Arab countries and Israel, unlike Algeria which there expressed its hostility to such a project. And this normalization which has plunged relations between Algiers and Rabat into the abyss.
Last edited: