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After a year-long diplomatic truce with Algeria, Morocco seems to have adopted a different approach towards Algeria. In a series of statements, Morocco’s Foreign Affairs Minister has shown that the country’s policy towards the neighboring country has indeed changed.
In March 2019, Morocco announced that it is «not interfering» in the internal affairs of Algiers, which was shaken by Hirak protests demanding the departure of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
At the time, Nasser Bourita stressed that «Morocco has nothing to do with the internal developments Algeria is experiencing». His statement was seen as a guidance to other Moroccan officials, who understood that addressing protests in Algeria is a red line.
Violating these restrictions, implicitly set up by the Moroccan Foreign Minister, were immediately signaled out. Indeed, in October 2019, former Foreign Minister and then head of the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM) Salaheddine Mezouar was criticized for commenting on the protests in Algeria.
Shortly after his comments, the Foreign Ministry issued a communiqué describing Mezouar’s statement as «irresponsible, clumsy and unthoughtful». The former minister resigned right after the Foreign Ministry’s critical statement.
Morocco reviews its policy towards Algeria
Even the head of government had to comply by the red lines set up by the Foreign Ministry when addressing the situation in Algeria. In May 2019, Saadeddine El Othmani said during an event that «the new regime in Algeria will not adopt the same hostile policy towards Morocco».
The next day, El Othmani’s office issued a statement stressing that «the head of government has made no official statement about Algeria and that his statement doesn’t represent the Moroccan government’s position».
However, things changed when Algeria elected its new president Abdelmajid Tebboune. The new president has shown that the country’s position on the Western Sahara issue is the same.
«The Western Sahara issue is a question of decolonization which is in the hands of the United Nations and the African Union», Tebboune said on December 19 during his swearing-in ceremony. Since then, Tebboune has been addressing the territorial conflict using the same tone adopted by the former regime.
Tebboune’s statements on the Sahara did not go unnoticed in Morocco. The country has made sure to respond to Algeria’s criticism on the opening of African consulates in the cities of Laayoune and Dakhla.
This new course of action is expected to continue in the weeks and months to come on the question of Western Sahara, with the deadlines for April at the Security Council, the Africa-France Summit in June as well as the potential Union Summit.
