Why Brussels would opt for Morocco and its Sahara

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine would force Europe to get closer to Morocco and to bury the dispute over the Sahara if we trust the electronic information platform El Confidential which in its edition yesterday committed a very interesting article-analysis and moreover of high quality

This pretty relevance from the pen of Ilya Topper, journalist, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the digital magazine M’Sur, even questions the choice of the moment ” Why now ? “Indeed, he wonders why”Spain considers the Moroccan autonomy proposal presented in 2007 as the most serious, credible and realistic basis for resolving this dispute.and deduces that Madrid is preparing to follow the example of the United States and recognize Western Sahara as an integral part of the Kingdom of Morocco. The conflict for some 140 million dollars per year that it costs (all costs included with humanitarian and food aid from the EU and Spain…) is equivalent to 24 Iskander missiles launched by Russia every day in Ukraine.

For the journalist, the Sahara conflict is “a classic product of the cold war and what is coming is a new cold war and in times of cold war frozen conflicts heat up“. Indeed, since the 1960s, Rabat has received armaments intended to defend itself against Algeria, in Soviet orbit, which receives an even greater volume of equipment from Moscow, he continues. “The polisario is only a pawn in this game, if it had won, the vast and depopulated Sahrawi republic would have become a protectorate of Algeria and its coast the ideal place to establish this naval base without ice that the navy Soviet researched as the holy grail for access to the seas of the world“.

At least that’s what Washington feared. She therefore provided Rabat with all the support necessary to prevent this from happening. The vote of the Supreme Soviet announcing the dissolution of the Soviet Union the day after Christmas 1991 should have put an end to this blocking logic to make way for a negotiated solution. Algeria, on the other hand, had no interest in withdrawing its support from its cherub, the latter continuing to be a tool to harm its neighbor and eternal rival. It made it possible to maintain police and military control over the Sahara and was an economic and diplomatic issue and therefore a burden that hampered its development in Morocco.

But not only since it was the same for Algeria, continues El Confidential. Indeed, the regime in Algiers diverts some 1,300 million dollars each year from its budget to the structures of the separatists in order to allow them to operate. Of the recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over its Sahara, Donald Trump, he will say “It was not a whim of Trump: it is Washington’s policy” and of France, Paris, has always masked its resolute support for Rabat, with the exception of Jacques Chirac who, in 2001, used the term “the provinces of southern Morocco” for the Sahara. Germany in January and more recently Spain “moral guardian” of the Sahara, but above all the governor of relations between the European Union and Morocco, adhere to it. From Paris to Berlin via Madrid, he says to himself that we must follow in the footsteps of the United States and reintegrate Morocco into a solid alliance, including the Sahara.

For Africa, he will say that the plan to bring gas to Europe through a gas pipeline crossing Niger and Algeria and countries mired in corrupt regimes, coups d’etat, mafias of migrant smugglers and jihadist militias is not what Europe needs. Europe needs an Africa, or at least the northern half of Africa, stable and peaceful, in full economic development and consuming European goods. Also, he praises the Nigeria Morocco gas pipeline project which passes through twelve countries, the first section of which, 600 kilometers long, has already been built, through Benin and Togo to Ghana. It should have an important side effect: the energy supply and economic development of all the literals of the countries it passes through.

This is what Rabat promises, which has been investing in diplomacy, trade and business south of its borders for a decade. Africa is still a small market, receiving only 7.7% of Moroccan exports – less than the Americas, with 11% – but it is a significantly higher proportion than any other European country: Spain and France export less than 2%. of their products to sub-Saharan Africa. This should change with a more prosperous, more developed West Africa, more inclined to spend at home. The road to this future Africa passes through Morocco. More precisely, by Guerguerat, between Morocco and Mauritania. It is the only road traffic artery that connects Tangier to the rest of the continent. So if Europe wants to open a window on Africa, which it is slow to do, it must resolve this conflict.“Faced with the choice between the two enemy brothers, Europe has already decided: Morocco is the gateway to Africa, Algeria is only a gas supplier. And the gas is not in danger. Algiers won’t cut it, because that’s what she lives on. Nine out of ten dinars entering the country come from hydrocarbons“.