French Lawmakers Downplay Risk of Morocco-Algeria Conflict, EU Urges Stability

Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco on August 24, 2021 and has even threatened to take other measures against its neighbor. Since then, many countries have been concerned about the risk of a war between the two countries. "The two countries are important partners of the EU and have a key role to play in the stability and prosperity of the entire Maghreb region. To this end, the EU seizes all opportunities to promote the appeasement of tensions in the regional interest of the Maghreb, the Mediterranean and beyond," said Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission.

In a report published on February 17, the National Defense and Armed Forces Commission of the French National Assembly states that the risk of conflict is "limited" between the two Maghreb neighbors, reports Jeune Afrique. "The risk of a transformation of the hostilities in the Western Sahara into a conventional conflict between state actors appears limited at this stage. In November 2021, the bombing - attributed by Algeria to Morocco - of trucks transiting in the East of the Western Sahara and causing the death of three Algerians has thus, fortunately, not been followed by a military escalation between the two countries," say deputies Philippe Michel-Kleisbauer (Modem) and Jean-Jacques Ferrara (Les Républicains), both authors of the report.

One of the points of friction between Rabat and Algiers remains the Sahara. On this issue, these French MPs speak of a "frozen conflict" and mention an "absence of a political solution". According to them, this "absence of a political solution" would be mainly due to the impossibility of reaching a consensus on the autonomy of the Sahrawi population. In 2007, Rabat had presented an autonomy plan considered "serious and credible" by Paris and Washington. But Algiers and its protégé, the Polisario, persist in asserting that the organization of a self-determination referendum is the only possible solution for the settlement of this issue.