France Seeks to Strengthen Maghreb Alliances Amid Regional Tensions

After this visit to Algeria from August 25 to 27, which was very poorly received in Morocco, the French president announced an official visit to the kingdom in October. The rivalry between Morocco and Algeria has lasted for more than half a century and is increasingly threatening the security of the region. With jihadism on the rise in the Sahel, France, which has withdrawn its troops from Mali, needs reliable allies in the region to effectively fight this phenomenon.

Rather than attempting an almost impossible reconciliation between Morocco and Algeria, France could find a reliable partner in Morocco if it recognized the Moroccanness of the Sahara, as the United States has done since December 2020, and more recently Germany and Spain. On August 20, in his speech on the occasion of the Feast of the Revolution of the King and the People, Mohammed VI clearly stated that "the Sahara file is the prism through which Morocco considers its international environment," recalls Marianne.

France would have everything to gain with Morocco if it got out of its ambiguous position on the Sahara. Its change of position on this crucial issue should strengthen its strategic and security presence in West Africa, facilitate police cooperation with the kingdom in the fight against jihadism and illegal immigration, and increase Franco-Moroccan economic exchanges. For Hadrien Desuin, author of "La France atlantiste", France no longer has "to hesitate" between "an Algeria with an anti-French government and Morocco which is only waiting for a signal from us on the Sahara".