France Ignores Algerian Protests Over Western Sahara Stance

Since France’s recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara, diplomatic relations between Algiers and Paris have deteriorated. After recalling its ambassador to Paris, the mobilization of Parliament and political parties against France, Algiers is using the migration weapon. It systematically refuses the disembarkation, in its airports, of its nationals expelled by France. These Algerians, under an Obligation to Leave French Territory (OQTF), are therefore taken back to France, pending their country’s acceptance to take them back. Algeria does not spare its western neighbor. In a statement to the press, the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs described Morocco as a "colonizing" country.

These actions by Algeria hardly move France and Morocco. The two allies respond to Algiers with silence. Why this posture? Morocco and France "seem to have chosen the diplomatic side to express their position on the Sahara issue, preferring not to follow Algeria in its media attacks," comments political expert Mohamed Chekir. According to him, the silence of Rabat and Paris "lies in the fact that France’s recognition of the Moroccanness of the Sahara was made at the highest political and diplomatic level, through the letter that the French President addressed to the King of Morocco on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his accession to the throne, to which the King of Morocco responded with a communiqué from the Royal Palace welcoming this new political and diplomatic position, while inviting Macron to visit Morocco at a time he deems appropriate".

There is therefore no reason for France or Morocco to engage in "any media or political debate thereafter," concludes the expert interviewed by Assahifa, noting that the position on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara has been "definitively settled at the highest level".