Amar Belani and Morocco: 5 Columns Out of 13, a One-Sided Love Affair

There are discreet passions and others that are expressed several times a week. The one Amar Belani maintains for Morocco clearly belongs to the second category. The former Algerian ambassador never goes very long without an appointment with Rabat.

As of September 18, his author page on TSA lists thirteen columns published since August 20. Five deal directly with Morocco or the Sahara. Nearly 40% of his recent output: at this level of regularity, this is no longer merely a diplomatic curiosity, but genuine editorial loyalty.

On Bladi.net : article 86227

It must be said that this story goes back a long way. Amar Belani was Algeria’s special envoy in charge of Western Sahara and the Maghreb countries, before being promoted to secretary-general of the Algerian Foreign Ministry. The positions have changed, but the Moroccan dossier has never really left his desk. It seems merely to have been moved from the diplomatic briefcase to the press column.

Since August 25, Morocco has appeared successively in a column about the Abraham Accords, in a text on “Rabat’s capacity for causing harm,” and then in a “legal sleight of hand” attributed to Brussels. Added to these are a Spanish law presented as a “serious setback” for Rabat and, the very next day, a new indictment of the Moroccan “great balancing act.” Four statements in the space of ten days: even the most passionate stories sometimes take longer breaks.

Spain Changes Roles According to Circumstances

This troubled relationship also offers some interesting variations. On September 3, Amar Belani described a Spain “paralyzed” by Morocco. Madrid was supposedly so afraid of Moroccan reprisals that it would prefer to “bow its head.” Pedro Sánchez was supposedly weak, cautious and almost paralyzed in the face of Rabat’s formidable levers of influence.

Ten days later, the scenery changed. In a new column devoted to Morocco and Spain, the same country became a perfectly normal-functioning democracy: its Parliament votes freely, its judiciary investigates and its press comments. This time, Rabat was supposedly incapable of accepting the independence of Spanish institutions.

In the space of about ten days, Spain therefore went from being a state paralyzed by fear of Morocco to a sovereign democracy standing up to it. That is how feelings work: when the scenario changes, the characters sometimes have to learn a new role very quickly. TSA is also careful to point out that these columns express their author’s opinions, not those of its editorial staff. Isn’t that Rafik Tadjer’s role?

On Bladi.net : article 94546

This attention is not a recent passion. As early as March 2022, Bladi noted that Amar Belani “was attacking Morocco” in a new statement. A few months later, he again accused Rabat of “undermining” the efforts of the UN secretary-general’s personal envoy for the Sahara. The years go by, diplomatic positions disappear, but the vocabulary remains remarkably consistent.

Morocco is described in turn as threatening, frustrated, humiliated, destabilized, belligerent or caught in its own game. Yet, reading this succession of columns, another reality eventually emerges: the person who seems to devote the most attention to Rabat may not always be the one the author points to.

Amar Belani can therefore rest assured: even after the end of his duties, his former specialty is unlikely to be missed. Morocco continues to occupy a privileged place on his agenda. A one-sided love affair, certainly, but maintained with a consistency that almost commands admiration.