France-Morocco Relations Cool Amid Diplomatic Tensions and Security Concerns

The evening newspaper has just devoted a long article to the cooling of relations between Morocco and France, entitled "Between Morocco and France, the great disaffection." Visa restrictions, the Sahara issue, the Franco-Algerian warming, suspicions of Moroccan espionage with the Israeli software Pegasus and "disloyal" practices of infiltration, judged in Paris... So many subjects that annoy and undermine the Rabat-Paris relationship. But according to Abdelmalek Alaoui, a communicator and president of the Moroccan Institute of Strategic Intelligence, the origin of the tensions between the two countries is elsewhere.

"The crux of the problem is that Morocco has displayed its ambitions to box in the higher category. It has become an emerging regional power that wants to free itself from an asymmetrical relationship with Paris," said the communicator, noting that Rabat’s "doctrinal evolution" "leads it to ’diversify’ its partners, sealing a quasi-military alliance with Israel, co-producing vaccines with China or considering cooperation in civil nuclear power with Russia, all gestures of emancipation that would disturb a France accustomed to a disciplined African ’private preserve’."

Commenting on the communicator’s remarks, the author of the article believes that "France would even take umbrage at Morocco’s economic activism in sub-Saharan Africa. A kind of rivalry would now oppose the two countries on certain markets such as banking or even armaments, a sector where Rabat sees itself as a future export industry thanks to Israeli technology transfers." "France is aware that the alliance between Morocco and Israel will compete with it in Africa," observes Nizar Derdabi, a former officer of the Royal Gendarmerie and a security expert. There is now "competition" between Morocco and France on the continent.