Moroccan official: Algeria is suffering from Claustrophobia

Algeria is suffering from "claustrophobia" and is seeking, through the Sahara, to have access to the Atlantic ocean, said Monday Moroccan high commissioner for planning, Ahmed Lahlimi Alami, in an interview with MAP press agency.

Algeria is suffering from "claustrophobia" because it is semi-enclosed, he explained, saying this is the cause behind Algiers' aspirations concerning the Sahara as a means to have access to the Atlantic Ocean.

Commenting the memo Morocco addressed recently to the UN Secretary General, Lahlimi said the document "only discloses a part of Algerian leaders' hostility towards Morocco."

Hostility, he said, "has been constantly marking the Algerian official policy (towards Morocco) since 1965."

Morocco and Algeria are at loggerheads over Moroccan southern provinces (known as the Sahara) because of the latter's backing of the Polisario separatists who claim the secession of this territory, retrieved in 1975 after a Spanish occupation.

The Moroccan official underscored the Sahara issue within the historical context of Moroccan-Algerian relations.

"No need, he said, to recall that even before Morocco retrieved its Sahrawi provinces, Algeria constantly organized, armed and trained Moroccan opposition groups and helped them infiltrate into Morocco to destabilize the country under the cloak of revolutionary activism."

"It is only after the two military coups d'état that took place in the seventies (É), and especially after Morocco retrieved its Sahrawi provinces that the genuine motivations of Algeria's support of Moroccan opposition groups have been unmasked," he said.

"The Moroccan opposition dissociated itself then of Algerian leaders' Maghreb policy, and joined the Moroccan people's general mobilization to confront diplomatic and military actions that Algeria made to realize its expansionist aspirations in Moroccan southern provinces," Lahlimi went on.

"Hence, Algeria could only rely on people of Saharwi origin that were among the former Moroccan opposition to achieve its genuine objectives."

"With the help of these elements, and the assistance of Spanish military forces that were getting ready to leave the Sahara after the signing of Madrid accord, that established the decolonisation of the Sahara, (É) Algiers trained and hosted a part of the Sahrawi population in Tindouf," he recalled.

The Polisario, and later on the alleged Sahrawi Republic "SADR," was "created under the supervision of Algerian military forces that put on its top an agent who does not have any link with Sahrawi provinces, namely Abdelaziz El Marrakchi, who is in origin from Marrakech where his family still lives, and as indicates his family name."

"While facing the subversive actions led from the Algerian territory and continuing to defend its territorial integrity, Morocco has not ceased to believe that the two brotherly countries are destined to get along with each other because of their two peoples that are united by a historical past and a common destiny."

He said as an alternative to Algerian policy that entails high risks, "it exists for our country a way that is more constructive and peaceful to achieve this dream." "The Maghreban Union is the appropriate framework where Atlantic, Mediterranean and Sahrawi assets of the region would be used in the service of the real interests of all peoples in the region."

"Despite all aggressions and damages sustained by Morocco, in particular since the outbreak of the Sahara conflict, the country has kept this spirit in managing (É) its relations with Algeria, avoiding all risks of confrontation between the two countries," he underlined.

"This wisdom has prevailed in the Moroccan policy both during the reign of late king Hassan II (father of king Mohammed VI) and King Mohammed VI," he said, noting that the king's latest decision to suppress visas for Algerians was a strong message addressed to the Algerian people."

Concerning the self-determination referendum, Lahlimi deemed it more a polemic solution reached during the cold war era, than a practical way to settle the conflict.

No responsible body, geo-strategist or military specialist, aware of the reality in the region, could, and still cannot today, be convinced of the practicality of a referendum in the case of the Sahara."

Should referendums be a solution to any internal opposition using violence, (É) it would simply mean justifying, and even legitimising, the civil war, he noted.

Commenting South Africa's decision to recognize " a republic that has none of the characteristics" of a State, Lahlimi said he is "grieved that an important country, that is over 15 hours away by plane from the concerned region, adopts an easy solution in a complicated conflict (É) without examining the risks it has on peace in North Africa."

The Moroccan official voiced fears that "Algeria, a country that is rich with petrol-dollars and that is excessively arming itself (É) may be tempted by an adventure that may destabilize one of the rare regions in the African and Arab world that remained relatively peaceful."