Expert: France Recognizing Moroccan Sahara Could Destabilize Algeria

"France’s recognition of the Moroccanness of the Sahara could lead to the disintegration of Algeria," said Abderrahim Manar Slimi, professor of international relations and political analyst, during a colloquium organized by the Grand Maroc review for geopolitical and constitutional studies in collaboration with the Abdelouahed El Kadiri Foundation, on "the Sahara issue and the determinants of balance and power on the Maghreb scene". According to him, the current discourse "khawa khawa" has no place in the era of the education of the new generation in Algeria by "the army".

Stressing that the main problem in the conflict is the eastern Sahara, the academic observed that what worries Algeria today is the movement of Moroccan public opinion and the revival of the debate around this region, especially with Morocco’s possession of documents proving its ownership of it. While historical data confirm the absence of an Algerian state before the French colonization, and historical documents, including international documents, prove this, and the term "Algerian state" is nowhere to be found in the international document relating to the colonies occupied by France or left after decolonization, Morocco is on the other hand "a nation-state with a common link that has gone through several historical stages, while the Algerian army has tried in vain to create a nation," he pointed out.

A psychological factor that was, according to Manar Slimi, decisive for the discourse of the former Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ramtane Lamamra, concerning the rupture of relations with Morocco. Another observation made by the academic: Rabat has managed to seize the transformations that have taken place in the international system, moving from bipolarity to the fragile multipolarity of today, while Algiers has remained stuck in the era of bipolarity and has not been able to understand what was happening. According to him, Algeria has nothing to offer in terms of foreign policy. The academic thus alludes to the loss of the influence of the eastern neighbor in the Sahel. Last January, the Algerian services feared that the main cooperation project between Morocco and Mali aimed at connecting the Sahel to the Atlantic via the Sahara, and presented in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad, would cause enormous damage to Algeria. This Moroccan project, which aims to transform the economies of the Sahel, improve the lives of its populations and promote security in the region by connecting the Sahel countries to the Atlantic.