http://elmagharibi.blogspot.com/Let’s hope politicians in Morocco and Algeria were following the news coming out of Ankara and Yerevan: Muslim Turkey and Christian Armenia have agreed to normalize their bilateral ties, putting decades of animosity behind them. It is a historical moment for both countries and a message to other nations involved in conflicts to overcome differences for the benefits of the advancement of their citizens. The significant of this event is magnified by the seriousness of the Armenian charge of “Genocide” against Turkey in the mass killings of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915. While Armenia and its neighbor Turkey were working out a “road map” to normalize their relationship, Algeria and its neighbor Morocco were locked, again, in a war of words over the Western Sahara conflict. The “newly elected” President Bouteflika of Algeria used his “inaugural Speech” to compare the Moroccan presence in the Western Sahara to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories belittling the Palestinian cause and showing a great intransigence toward the United Nations efforts to resolve the Sahara conflict. Such “Brezhnev era’s Soviet Union” like statements from the Algerian President reinforce the existence sentiment that the so-called western Sahara conflict is an Algerian-Moroccan dispute that can only be resolved in direct bi-lateral negotiation between Rabat and Algiers. Historically, Morocco under the late King Hassan II approached the conflict over the Sahara as an argument with the late Algerian President Boumedienne. However, as the disastrous Moroccan diplomacy of the seventies and eighties stumbled and the Algerian position in support of the Algeria created Polisario separatist movement gained momentum, Morocco was compelled to deal with the Polisario in equal terms as an adversary. Presently, this argument does not stand. Both Morocco and Algeria are going through different historical stages that are bound to affect their policies in dealing with the Sahara Conflict. Whereas the Moroccan diplomacy, with all its lapses, has joined the twenty first century, the Algerian Foreign Ministry is stuck in the twilight zone, and will stay that way for few years to come with the return of Bouteflika for a third term. On the issue of the Western Sahara, Morocco’s position has evolved with Rabat’s local autonomy for the population of the Sahara while Algeria’s stagnated. Accordingly, it is time to repaint this conflict with its true color: a border dispute between Morocco and Algeria. As long as the Western Sahara conflict is not framed as a grouping of the Moroccan-Algerian disputes over the Sahara, Tindouf and Beshar, all attempts by the United Nations to resolve the conflict will flounder. Actually, Algerian officials are first to admit that the bitter memory of the 1963 Sands War with Morocco is the driving force behind their government rigid anti-Morocco position disputing the legitimacy of Rabat presence in the Western Sahara. Consequently, resolving all and any leftover issues from this war hold the key to resolving the current crisis, as long as the resolution is through direct negotiations between the two Belligerents. The United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) has been waist of money. Similarly, the missions of successive UN envoys to the region were complete failure as most of the UN diplomats persisted in including the Polisario movement as an independent entity outside the influence of Algerian Military influence. It is naïve and unrealistic to believe that the Polisario leadership make independent decisions without direction from Algiers. It is becoming ever evident that the only way to resolve this long simmering conflict is to remove the Polisario element out of the equation, demark the Moroccan Algerian borders once for all, and address Algeria’s geographical concerns in terms of access to the Atlantic Ocean. Rabat, unheeded, appeals to improve relations with Algiers are the first step to resolve all outstanding problems between the two countries. Algerians and Moroccans do not have to open borders but must settle the dispute over the Sahara and their borders as did Armenia and Turkey. With its obstinacy to address the underlining sources of its dispute with Morocco, the Algerian diplomacy will be eventually be tired by the international community as an out-of-date institution poorly adapted to the new realities in the region and overly influenced by bunch of political dinosaurs. King Mohamed VI has a vision for prosperous Morocco and Algeria where economy is more important than who controls which oasis in a desalt corner of the Sahara. With 35% unemployment, the Algerian government should be drafting plans to bring out their country out of the economical abyss instead of redirecting domestic opinion wrath against neighboring countries. The Armenian and Turkish leaders are visionaries who recognize the importance of prosperity ...//en.yabiladi.com/topics/lesson-from-turkey-and-armenia-44-3081549-3081549.html#msg-3081549 Fri, 05 Jun 2026 14:13:52 +0200 Phorum 5.2.15