Sur high instructions from the King, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, received, last Tuesday, the Algerian Minister of Justice, Abderrachid Tebbi, emissary of the Algerian President, Abdelmajid Tebboune, to the Sovereign. On this occasion, Tebbi delivered the letter of invitation addressed to the King to attend the work of the Arab Summit, scheduled for November 1 and 2, 2022 in Algeria.
The statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was brief and laconic to say the least. Two short sentences, and presto! However, it might not be otherwise. And once more, Morocco had the elegance to welcome a leader of this country on its soil! Because this lightning visit of Tebbi summons a single reading: it testifies to the perversity and hypocrisy of the Algerian power.
He attempts an ephemeral diplomatic coup by exhibiting an “invitation” wrapped in a sheath of hypocrisy. For two main reasons:
• Primo : Has the Algerian regime forgotten that it has decided, since Wednesday, September 22, 2021, to close Algerian airspace to all Moroccan civil and military aircraft as well as those carrying a Moroccan registration number? Will he therefore grant a special dispensation to the Moroccan delegation which must go to the Arab Summit before closing its airspace?
• Secondly : At the time when Tebbi was received by Bourita, the Algerian power continued, at the same time, its work of destabilizing the Kingdom and tirelessly maneuvering to prevent the completion of our territorial integrity.
The day before Tebbi’s arrival in Morocco, on Monday September 26, it was the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ramtane Lamamra, who indeed poorly illustrated himself at the UN General Assembly, by launching in particular an appeal to the UN and to the Personal Envoy of the SG for the Moroccan Sahara, for the resumption of the UN process.
But who are we kidding? The round tables, with the participation of all stakeholders (Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and Polisario), are currently the only framework put in place by the Security Council to pursue the political process. But following having participated twice, Algiers refuses to take part once more, to ask for “direct negotiations” between Morocco and the Polisario.
The reason for this refusal: a way to maintain the status quo around this artificial dispute. The reality is that the power in Algeria instrumentalizes the question of the Moroccan Sahara at will. Sometimes he uses it as an internal political weapon to manipulate the Algerian street which demands his departure and a change of regime: this was the case when Tebboune accused Morocco of having “killed three Algerian nationals in a bombardment”promising that “their assassination will not go unpunished”.
Tsometimes he uses it to make his pallid diplomacy exist on the international level: it is the act that he poses by refusing to join the round tables. So, don’t expect Algiers to change its deceitful stance on the Moroccan Sahara.
Par D. William
