Former Algerian diplomat and Minister of Culture and Information, Abdelaziz Rahabi, said that three statements issued in less than a month regarding Algeria, by Omar Hilal, the Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations, the Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun, and the former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, reveal, according to him, “a common source” and “explicit hostility towards Algeria.”
In a contribution entitled “How does the Ceuta crisis put Algeria’s geopolitics to the test? And who are the actors involved?”, Rahabi, one of the most prominent commentators on the Algerian-Moroccan relationship, focused on the statements of Omar Hilale, Morocco’s permanent representative to the United Nations, who stated a few days ago that Algeria did not exist before 1962, and therefore “does not understand the meaning of territorial integrity.”
The former Algerian ambassador to Spain and Mexico recalled that the same Moroccan diplomat had chosen, in July 2021, the United Nations platform to call for the secession of the Kabylie region, considering that this “greatly influenced” the decision taken by Algeria a month later to sever its diplomatic relations with Morocco.
Rahabi criticized the statements of Omar Hilale, the Permanent Representative of Morocco to the United Nations, who stated that Algeria did not exist before 1962, and therefore “does not understand the meaning of territorial integrity.”
Rahabi said that this position reflects, according to him, a lack of awareness of the weight of history in the present of the two countries, explaining that its holder “confuses the modern state, which is a Western concept dating back to the late sixteenth century, with ancient history.”
In this context, Rahabi explained that Algerian history spans several thousand years and is based on Numidia as its "foundational base" in terms of both geographical scope and identity. He added that Algeria, since the reign of King Massinissa and his son more than 2,200 years ago, "remarkably" maintained the same borders until French colonization, which he said stripped Algeria of part of its western border before ceding it in the Treaty of Lalla Maghnia in 1845, referring to the territory that extends to the Moulouya River in present-day Morocco.
The writer pointed out that Numidia, before the emergence of the Ottoman Empire, France and Morocco, possessed all the elements of a state, represented by the land, the population and a government of princes, or “Aglad,” who confronted Rome and Carthage and their expansionist tendencies.
He said that this “gave initial meaning to territorial sovereignty,” considering that Numidia represents one of the distinctive features of the Algerian national doctrine in diplomatic affairs and national defense.
Rahabi then turned to the statements of Tahar Ben Jelloun, the Moroccan writer who defends his country’s authorities’ arguments in the French media in particular, who stated more than a week ago that Algeria was behind the “Blue March” in Ceuta, and swore that Algerians constituted the majority of the 72,000 migrants who crossed to the West in less than ten hours,” according to what Rahabi reported.
He added that Benjelloun, on the other hand, remained silent regarding the 140 deaths that were counted, arguing that “the facts proved the opposite of what he said.” He said that Benjelloun knew these facts well, but “insists on them with the sole aim of harming Algeria,” linking them to the misery and violence that accompanied the Ceuta tragedy, and portraying them as “the greatest threat to the peace and security of Europe in the region.”
Rahabi argued that Benjelloun, as an “influential figure and disseminator of propaganda,” could legitimately serve his country without being explicitly hostile to Algeria, explaining that he seeks to find arguments to mitigate the negative impact of “the invasion of Ceuta on Morocco, which derives its strength from its image.”
He added that the migrants “have been stripped of their humanity” and have become, according to him, “a tool for diplomatic adaptation” near the Algerian border, which he said is exposed to all forms of harm, especially those related to drugs.
Regarding the third statement, Rahabi said that former Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, less than a month ago, called on Algerians once again to launch a new “movement,” and expressed his dissatisfaction with the distinctiveness of Algerian-Tunisian relations.
He explained that Marzouki, who was elected president of Tunisia in 2011 by the National Constituent Assembly, missed a historic opportunity for Tunisia to transition to democracy after the fall of Ben Ali.
Rahabi added that “Marzouki chose to employ Tunisia’s energy and resources in diplomatic missions assigned by France and Morocco,” considering that these missions “exceeded his position,” and that he thus violated the positive neutrality that has characterized the Tunisian position since 1975 regarding the Western Sahara issue.
Rahabi recalled that Marzouki had taken action in 2014 to organize a summit of the Arab Maghreb Union in Tunisia, in an “active and unprecedented” manner, and said that the summit included a single item on the agenda in the form of a deal proposing “approval of the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara in exchange for granting Algeria access to the Atlantic Ocean.”
Rahabi concluded that the three statements are characterized, according to him, by their simultaneity within less than a month, by their “explicit hostility towards Algeria,” and above all by their “unity of source.”
He said that the Moroccan regime practices what he described as “double diplomacy,” explaining that Morocco simultaneously sends signals of calm and shows a desire for normalization through messages directed to Algeria via France, the United States of America and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, while, on the other hand, it mobilizes its institutions and summons unofficial mediators within a strategy of “permanent tension” towards Algeria.
Rahabi linked this strategy, according to his vision, to what he described as an approach initiated by King Hassan II immediately after Algeria’s independence, through “the armed aggression of 1963,” referring to the Sand War.
He said that the Moroccan discourse “no longer adheres to even the simplest forms of diplomatic restraint,” considering that “its boldness derives its strength from the support of the most extreme pressure groups in the United States, whether among Republicans or Democrats.”
He added that these groups, according to him, are “determined to make us pay the price for our position on Palestine,” and to “force us to give up our commitment to the right to self-determination in Western Sahara.”
Rahabi argued that the speech also aimed to distort and weaken Algeria’s image by portraying it as “a country hostile to Western interests,” thus allowing Morocco, according to him, to reap the benefits of monopolizing the representation of its interests in the region, inspired by the “Israeli model.”
He said that Algeria “does not dispute this role, nor does it seek it,” but it “cannot be a ladder to turn our region into an area of confrontation between the great powers and an arena of polarization for various parties from all spectra.”
He emphasized that “geography dictates strategy, not the other way around,” explaining that the geopolitical landscape along Algeria’s borders, which he noted are the fifteenth longest in the world, has become more complex with the decline of ideologies and the rise of extremism. He added that alliances have become “flexible, non-exclusive, and non-permanent,” and that the plurality of alliances has increasingly established itself as the norm in international relations.
A year ago, Rahabi spoke to the Spanish newspaper “El Independent” about the “strategy of permanent tension” that Morocco has been pursuing, according to him, since 1963, ruling out that this would lead to a war between the two countries. However, he questioned Morocco’s motives for arming itself with the support of countries from the Emirates, and for leading what he called “an international campaign aimed at questioning Algeria’s history and accusing it of allying with Iran and considering the Polisario Front an armed wing of Iran.”
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