Algeria recalled, on Sunday, its ambassador to Rabat for consultations, following the absence of any positive response to the invitation sent by Algeria to the Kingdom of Morocco to clarify its final position on the dangerous slip-up of this neighboring country.

The latest flare-up of tension between the North African neighbors emerged after Moroccan diplomatic representation in New York delivered to the member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement an official memorandum in which Morocco expressly declared its support for the so-called “right to self-determination of the Kabyle people in Algeria, a serious deviation condemned, in the strongest terms, by Algeria, a sovereign and indivisible country, dubbing it as a hostile campaign against it.

In response, the statement of Algeria’s Foreign Ministry announced: “The Moroccan diplomatic representation in New York handed an official memorandum to all member states of the Non-Aligned Movement, the content of which is officially devoted to demonstrating the Kingdom of Morocco’s involvement in an anti-Algeria campaign through public and explicit support for the right of alleged self-determination of the Kabyle people” who, according to the memorandum, “suffered the longest state of foreign occupation.”

The statement considered this memorandum to be: “A recognition of the multifaceted Moroccan support currently provided to a well-known terrorist group,” referring to the separatist Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK), which Algeria recently designated as a terrorist group, along with the Rachad Movement.

The statement pointed out that Morocco’s current support for MAK is no different from: “Backing the terrorists who shed the blood of Algerians in the Black Decade.”

Algeria described the Moroccan diplomatic statement as: “Reckless, irresponsible and manipulative.” It stressed that it is: “Part of a short-sighted, reductive and futile attempt aimed at creating a shameful confusion between the issue of decolonization recognized as such by the international community and what is a mere conspiracy plotted against the unity of the Algerian nation.”

Algeria also considered that the Moroccan statement: “Directly contradicts the principles and agreements that structure and inspire Algeria-Morocco relations, in addition to flagrantly contradicting international law and the constitutive law of the African Union.”

Algeria strongly condemned what it described as: “A serious deviation, including the interior of the Kingdom of Morocco and within its internationally-recognized borders.”

The Algerian Foreign Ministry’s statement concluded by saying that in light of this situation arising from a dubious diplomatic act carried out by an ambassador, Algeria, which is a sovereign and indivisible republic, has the right to receive clarification of the final position of the Kingdom of Morocco regarding this extremely dangerous incident.

Following the absence of an explanation from the Moroccan side, Algeria reacted by recalling its Ambassador to Morocco, hinting at possible further measures depending on the development of this case.

The text of the second Algerian Foreign Affairs Ministry’s communiqué reads as follows: “The statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Community Abroad, on July 17, 2021, indicated the need for the Kingdom of Morocco to clarify its final position on the extremely dangerous situation resulting from the hatred statements of its ambassador in New York.”

“Due to the absence of any positive and appropriate response from the Moroccan side, it was decided to summon the Algerian ambassador in Rabat, immediately, for consultation.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that it “does not rule out taking other measures, depending on the development of this case,” the communiqué concluded.

The political class in Algeria, for its part, denounced the disgraceful and provocative schemes of Makhzen, describing the statements of Morocco's envoy to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, as a “terrorist act” against Algeria, aiming at undermining the country’s unity and territorial integrity.

Hilale's inadmissible comments sparked anger among all Algerian society’s fabrics regardless of their orientations, which defended the country's territorial unity, reminding the Moroccan system that the Algerian people will remain united, indivisible, homogenous, and consolidated.

Long tense relations between Algeria and Morocco have deteriorated of late following Morocco's normalization, last year, of diplomatic ties with the Zionist Entity, which came with a quid pro quo of American recognition of Rabat's sovereignty over Western Sahara, the last colony in the African continent.

Morocco eyes to trigger bilateral crises with neighboring countries, resorting to staging lies and baseless accusations. For some time, Morocco has experienced a series of diplomatic quarrels with a number of countries, first with Germany, then with Spain and Iran, against the backdrop of the conflict in Western Sahara occupied by the kingdom since 1975.  

In March, Morocco revoked its Ambassador in Berlin, accusing Germany of a "negative stance" regarding the disputed Western Sahara territory as Berlin called for a closed-door UN Security Council meeting to debate the US decision to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over the territory, in return for the Moroccan normalization of ties with the Zionist Entity.

A fresh dispute erupted between Morocco and Spain over the latter’s decision to host Western Sahara President, Ibrahim Ghali who was hospitalized at a hospital in Logroño in northern Spain, after he was infected with COVID-19, before his transfer to Algerian for convalescence.

His presence in Spain has angered Morocco which has accused the government in Madrid of endangering and sacrificing relations with Rabat.   

Morocco summoned Ricardo Díez-Hochleitner, the Spanish Ambassador to Rabat, to complain about Ghali’s presence in Spain.   

Spain, for its part, responded by clarifying that the decision to hospitalize the Sahrawi President is a humanitarian-based move as Spain acted on purely humanitarian grounds.

A few days later, a sudden influx of 8000 migrants of all ages, including about 1,500 minors, and even entire families, poured into Spain, swimming from Morocco using inflatable boats and dinghies around the borders fences or walking across at low tide into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in northern Africa, which became along with Melilla enclave magnets for African migrants.

Related News

On the third anniversary of Morocco’s involvement in the ill-fated 'Abraham Accords'

Moroccans, Palestinians provoked by Moroccan chief of staff's visit to “Tel Aviv”

The spike in arrivals sparked widespread controversy on social media users who linked this record number over a single day, directly, to diplomatic tensions between Morocco and Spain. Analysts elucidated that Morocco is turning a blind eye to thousands of migrants heading to Spain's Ceuta enclave with a view to pressing Madrid to recognize its alleged sovereignty over Western Sahara.

As for Iran, the Moroccan foreign minister said, in a televised interview broadcast in May with the President of AIPAC - the USA, that the "Polisario Front would receive arms from Iran as well as military training for its cadres," an accusation denied, in the strongest terms, by the Islamic Republic of Iran through the voice of its Foreign Ministry’ spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh.

Morocco resorts to hostile politics against all countries that adhere to the application of international legitimacy in Western Sahara and refuses to acknowledge its alleged sovereignty over the Sahrawi lands listed as a non-decolonized territory.

It is worth recalling that on December 10, 2020, the former American President Donald Trump announced that the United States would officially recognize Morocco's claimed sovereignty over Western Sahara, as a result of Morocco's agreement to normalize ties with the Zionist Entity.

With the agreement, which has been under discussion since 2017, Morocco becomes the fourth Arab country to pledge warmer official relations with the Zionist Entity.

Subsequently, a range of agreements was signed between the North African country and the Zionist Entity, the last of which inked, last week, providing for the establishment of cyber security cooperation in research, development, and operational areas and the sharing of information and knowledge.

In January, the two sides inked an agreement that will allow direct flights with the first flight between Tel Aviv and Marrakesh scheduled for July.

Meanwhile, reports, Sunday, said that the Zionist Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is planning on visiting Morocco early next month to attend the inauguration of the Zionist diplomatic mission in Rabat.

Western Sahara is a Non-Self-Governing Territory of the UN that lies in the Sahel region bordered by Algeria, Kingdom of Morocco, and Mauritania. This territory is home to the Sahrawis, a collective name for the indigenous peoples living in and around the region. They speak the Hassaniya dialect of Arabic. Similarly, many others also speak Spanish as a second language due to the region's colonial past. Their 50-year dispute broke out when the territory was first occupied by Morocco in November 1975, as thousands of Moroccan civilians, flanked by the Moroccan military, crossed into Western Sahara in defiance of Spain, which ruled the region since 1884, a step denounced by most countries and institutions, including the International Court of Justice which stated, a few days before, that there was no “legal tie of territorial sovereignty between Western Sahara and the Moroccan State”. According to Adala UK, on the 6th of November 1975, Morocco organized what it called a “Green March” to officially invade the North of Western Sahara moving 350,000 Moroccan settlers to the territory. This occupation coincided with the termination of the Spanish status as Administrative Power, creating a vacuum that imposed on the UN to assume its responsibility there.
 

Subsequently, the United Nations Security Council called on Morocco to withdraw from the territory; however, its effort was in vain. It was obvious that Morocco was violating not only the UN Charter’s principles, such as abstention from “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”, but also the African Union Constitutive Act’s sacred principle of “respect of borders existing on achievement of independence”. 

The International Court of Justice’s opinion of 1975 indicated, also, that the native Sahrawi people of Western Sahara are the only sovereign power in Western Sahara. It also considered that it “has not found legal ties of such a nature as might affect the application of resolution 1514 (XV) in the decolonization of Western Sahara and, in particular, of the principle of self-determination through the free and genuine expression of the will of the peoples of the Territory.” (para. 129, 162) (Adala UK).

This status quo did not please the Sahrawi people; in response to the Moroccan occupation, they mobilized for armed struggle under the leadership of the Polisario Front, the successor of the liberation movement of Seguia el-Hamra and Oued ed-Dahab of Mohammed Bassiri, created on May 10, 1973. This Frente has been recognized by the UN General Assembly Resolution 34/37 of 1979 as the sole legitimate representative of the Saharawi people.

Years later, precisely in 1991, the warring parties concluded a ceasefire agreement, culminating in the establishment of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), which is assuming its responsibility till nowadays.

Despite a cease-fire in 1991 that put an end to the armed combat, Western Sahara remains a disputed territory. Nowadays, Morocco controls parts of the territory. However, the United Nations refers to Western Sahara as a non-self-governing territory and maintains a stance favoring self-determination for its people.

UN body is attaching great interests to the Sahrawi cause, expressing willingness to find a solution ensuring the self-determination of the Sahrawi people, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the Council.  Several important judicial decisions concerning Western Sahara have been issued to assure Sahrawi’s full right to self determination. To wit; Resolution 1514 of December 14, 1960, also known as the “Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples” amplifies the anti-colonial struggles of peoples and their full sovereignty. The declaration states: “Subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination, and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights”.

In December 2016 the European Court of Justice affirmed that a Non-Self-Governing Territory has a separate and distinct status from that of the administering state.

On December, 23rs, 2016, UN General Assembly Resolution 71/103 stated that any economic or other activity that has a negative impact on the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories and on the exercise of their right to self-determination is contrary to the purposes and principles of the Charter” of the United Nations, referring to EU trade agreements with Morocco that includes the Sahrawi territory which has significant phosphate reserves and offshore fishing.

In 2017 the High Court stated that the territory of Western Sahara is Africa’s last colonized territory, vesting control of the natural resources of Western Sahara in the Saharawi people.

After years of war, the U.N. brokered a cease-fire in 1991 that called for a referendum on independence for Western Sahara, which is, to date, blocked by Morocco, was violated on 13 November 2020 by the Kingdom of Morocco that attacked civilians peacefully protesting in front of the illegal Guerguerat breach. Morocco, also, opened three new breaches within the Moroccan military wall in flagrant violation of the Military Agreement No. 1 signed between the Polisario Front and the Kingdom of Morocco under the auspices of the United Nations, in implementation of Security Council Resolution 690 of 1991, which provides for the organization of the referendum of self-determination for the Sahrawi people, and based on the decisions of the extraordinary session of the National Secretariat of the Polisario Front held on 07/11/2020, and the powers conferred upon him by the Basic Law of the Polisario Front and the constitution of the SADR.

Subsequently, Mr. Brahim Ghali, the President of the Sahrawi Republic and Secretary General of the Polisario Front, issued a presidential decree on November 13, 2020, declaring the end of the commitment to the ceasefire, which the Moroccan occupation had undermined and the consequent resumption of armed struggle in defense of the legitimate rights of the Sahrawi people. The war between the two countries remains in its heyday.

Morocco’s violation of the ceasefire in El-Guerguerat (southwest of Western Sahara) by attacking peaceful Sahrawi civilians has sparked a wave of international outrage and condemnation from a range of countries, regional and international organizations, including Algeria, UN, AU, South Africa, Germany, etc,  urging Morocco to stop hostilities and to comply with international law.