“Makhzen regime is serving malicious interests of foreign parties to detriment of region’s interests,” says Abdelaziz Medjahed (report)
By: Hana Saada
ALGIERS- “The Makhzen regime is serving the malicious interests of foreign parties to the detriment of the region’s interests and stability,” said Abdelaziz Medjahed, the general director of the National Institute for Global Strategy Studies (INESG).
In a declaration to Dzair Tube TV, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the disappearance of the hero Abdelkrim el-Khattabi, Dr. Medjahed considered that the Makhzen regim “is serving the malicious interests of foreign parties that harm, undoubtedly, the region,” emphasizing that “Algeria harbors no hostilities towards the Moroccan people, but it refuses categorically the malicious maneuvers of the Moroccan regime, jeopardizing the security of the region.”
History of Morocco, full of treason against Algeria
Historically, it has been proven that the Moroccan kingdom has not ceased its unfriendly, low and hostile maneuvers against Algeria for a day. The propensity of the Moroccan monarchy for treason against Algeria is deeply-rooted in history. During colonialism, the defeat of Emir Abdelkader is, noteworthy, not due to the prowess of the French arms, but to the betrayal of which he was the victim on the part of the Moroccan sultan, Moulay Abderrahmane who joined the forces with the French enemy to encircle him.
This is evidenced in an article published, on February 25, 1873, by the New York Times magazine which stated: “The ultimate defeat of Emir Abdelkader was not due to the prowess of the French arms, but to his traitorous ally the Emperor of Morocco, who after inducing many of Abdelkader’ supporters to desert him, finally drove him out by force”.
In a letter addressed to the Egyptian ulemas of El Azhar, Emir Abdelkader deplored the servility and fickleness of the Moroccan monarchy, openly accusing Sultan Moulay Abderrahmane of treason.
The Moroccan regime betrayed the glorious Algerian revolution as well as the independent Algeria. The systematic, methodical and premeditated nature of this animosity is documented, beginning with the open war of aggression of 1963, a fratricidal war unleashed by the royal Moroccan armed forces against Algeria, which had just regained its national independence. This war ‘the War of Sands’, in which the Kingdom of Morocco had engaged particularly deadly armaments and heavy equipment, cost Algeria 850 valiant martyrs who gave their lives for the preservation of the territorial integrity of the homeland. Morocco, whose ultra-nationalist and expansionist party of Istiqlal had already released its famous map of Greater Morocco which extends to the Senegal River and encompasses a quarter of the Algerian Sahara to the West, thus, violated the Border Treaty of Maghnia and attacked Algeria. At the same time, it violated the protocol signed on July 6, 1961 between the government of Morocco and the GPRA.
Despite the gaping wounds left by this armed confrontation, Algeria has patiently built state-to-state relations with its Moroccan neighbor. A Treaty of brotherhood, good neighborliness and cooperation, and a Convention delimiting the borders between the two countries have been inked in Ifrane in 1969 and in Rabat in 1972, to enshrine the principle of the inviolability of the borders inherited from independence.
In 1976, Morocco abruptly broke off diplomatic relations with Algeria which, along with a few other countries, had, sovereignly, recognized the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. Twelve years later, the two countries decided, in 1988, to resume their relations. The joint communiqué of May 16, 1988, which serves as the foundation and anchor for the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two countries, is drawn up with such an ambitious and responsible perspective. It has 4 essential parameters which constitute as many interrelated commitments that the Kingdom of Morocco has accepted, namely: the promotion of peace, good neighborliness, and cooperation, reaffirmation of the full validity of the treaties, conventions, and agreements concluded between the two countries, an effective contribution to the acceleration of the construction of the Great Arab Maghreb, a contribution to the tightening of Arab ranks around the sacred cause of the Palestinian people, as well as the support for a “just and final solution to the conflict in Western Sahara through a fair referendum of self-determination and finally working in the most total sincerity and without any constraint.
In addition, Algeria is fulfilling its commitment regarding the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of the Kingdom of Morocco. For their part, the security and propaganda apparatus of the Kingdom of Morocco are waging a low-level and large-scale media war against Algeria, its people, and its leaders, not hesitating to forge fanciful scenarios, invent rumors and propagate defamatory remarks. More seriously still, a plenipotentiary of the Kingdom illustrated himself by a particularly dangerous and irresponsible drift, invoking an alleged “right to self-determination of the valiant Kabyle people.”
In fact, the list of the heinous acts is long and it ranges from the unilateral, unfair, and unjustified imposition of the visa regime on Algerian nationals in 1994 (including foreign nationals of Algerian origin) following the attack in Marrakech committed by a network of Moroccan and foreign terrorists, to the unjustifiable violation of the enclosure of the Algerian Consulate General in Casablanca, with the desecration of the national flag on November 1, 2013; this serious attack on the symbols and values of the Algerian people did not give an apology or explanation, and its perpetrator, an activist from a so-called royalist youth movement, received an outrageously lax sentence of two months in prison suspended for an act perpetrated against an institution of internationally protected sovereignty, “complacently described as” “infringement of private property “.
Recently, other overruns have been noted leading Algeria to “immediately close”, as from Wednesday, September 23rd, 2021, its airspace to all Moroccan civilian and military aircrafts as well as those with Moroccan registration numbers. The decision was taken following the meeting of the High-Security Council chaired by the Algerian President of the Republic, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Minister of National Defence, Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
“The High-Security Council has decided to shut its airspace immediately to all civilian and military aircraft as well as to those registered in Morocco,” the Algerian presidency said in a statement.
The decision came “in view of the continued provocations and hostile practices on the Moroccan side,” added the same communiqué.
Noting that this move came after Algiers formally broke off diplomatic ties with Rabat on 24 August, 2021, following the backdrop of long-standing hostile acts perpetrated by Rabat against it and which continue until now. Algeria cited a series of hostile and malicious acts as well as an accumulation of grievances leading to this decision which culminates a period of growing tension between the North African countries which are mired in a decades-long feud, with their borders closed to each other.
In this vein, and in addition to the above-mentioned acts, Algeria denounced the massive and systematic acts of espionage held by Morocco, which resorted to a Zionist-made Pegasus spyware against Algerian officials and citizens. Besides, as stated by the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad, Ramtane Lamamra, Morocco is supporting a terrorist and separatist group (MAK) and failed in bilateral commitments, including on the Western Sahara issue. The Makhzen normalized diplomatic ties with the Zionist Entity, which came with a quid pro quo of American recognition of Rabat’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, the last colony in the African continent.
It’s worth mentioning that Morocco had triggered bilateral crises with neighboring countries, resorting to staging lies and baseless accusations. For some time, Morocco has experienced a series of diplomatic quarrels with a number of countries, first with Germany, then with Spain and Iran, against the backdrop of the conflict in Western Sahara occupied by the kingdom since 1975.
Among the reasons for severing diplomatic ties, the Minister highlighted the remarks pronounced, in July 2021, by Moroccan diplomatic representation in New York, after he delivered to the member countries of the Non-Aligned Movement an official memorandum in which Morocco expressly declared its support for the so-called “right to self-determination of the Kabyle people” in Algeria, a serious deviation condemned, categorically, by Algeria, a sovereign and indivisible country, dubbing it as a hostile campaign against it.
Algeria considered this memorandum to be: “A recognition of the multifaceted Moroccan support currently provided to a well-known terrorist group,” referring to the separatist Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK), which Algeria designated as a terrorist group, along with the Rachad Movement.
Algeria described the Moroccan diplomatic statement as: “Reckless, irresponsible and manipulative.” It stressed that it is: “Part of a short-sighted, reductive and futile attempt aimed at creating a shameful confusion between the issue of decolonization recognized as such by the international community and what is a mere conspiracy plotted against the unity of the Algerian nation.”
Algeria, also, considered that the Moroccan statement: “Directly contradicts the principles and agreements that structure and inspire Algeria-Morocco relations, in addition to flagrantly contradicting international law and the constitutive law of the African Union.”
The North African country, strongly, condemned what it described as: “A serious deviation, including the interior of the Kingdom of Morocco and within its internationally-recognized borders.”
Also, among the reasons to sever the Algerian-Moroccan diplomatic ties, were the recent comments by the Zionist Foreign Minister Yair Lapid who was on a historic visit to Morocco as part of their normalization of ties. The Zionist official attacked Algeria from this neighboring country, in blatant violations of good neighboring relations.
“Morocco has turned its territory into a platform allowing foreign powers to speak with hostility about Algeria. Since 1948, no Zionist official has made a hostile declaration to an Arab country from another Arab country ” APS agency quoted Mr. Lamamra as saying.
In the face of a provocation that is reaching its climax, Algeria has shown self-restraint by publicly demanding clarification from a competent Moroccan authority. The deafening silence of the Moroccan side in this regard, which had persisted, clearly reflected the political support from the highest Moroccan authority.
The hostile actions persisted with the active and documented collaboration of the Kingdom of Morocco with two terrorist organizations known as MAK and RACHAD, whose latest heinous crimes are linked to their premeditated involvement in the lethal wildfires which ravaged several provinces of the country, burning tens of thousands of hectares of forest and killing at least 90 people, including more than 30 soldiers, in addition, to their involvement in the torture and the abject assassination, immolation, and mutilation of the Algerian compatriot Djamel Bensmaïl.
Besides, Morocco’s consul in Oran (western Algeria) made, in 2020, heinous statements against Algeria that are unrelated to diplomatic norms. During his talk with his countrymen in front of the consulate headquarters on the waterfront of Oran (western Algeria), the consul informed, in a video published and shared on social media, Moroccan citizens wishing to return to the homeland, because of the health conditions, that they were “in an enemy country” (Algeria), calling them to be cautious during their presence in it.
The Moroccan consul’ statements represented a serious mistake committed by a Moroccan official who admitted to the direct enmity against Algeria when Moroccan nationals gathered in Oran to discuss their concerns to their country’s consulate, before they were surprised by the Moroccan consul who said; “You do not need to gather, you know that we are in an enemy country”!!
Regarding the commitment relating to the organization of a self-determination referendum in Western Sahara, the Kingdom of Morocco has renounced it, although it was solemnly taken by King Hassan II and recorded in the documents officials of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations, and the current leaders of the Kingdom now harbor the illusion of being able to impose their diktat on the international community concerning an alleged preeminence and exclusivity of their autonomy thesis. After having systematically and by making use of singular bad faith, fail all international efforts led under the aegis of the United Nations, the Kingdom of Morocco has, thus, destroyed all confidence in its word and in its signature, while it pretends to support the United Nations, whose responsibility is fully and irreversibly engaged in the search for a mutually acceptable solution for both parties, the Kingdom of Morocco and the Polisario Front, which guarantees the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination.
For all these reasons, based on the facts, Algeria decided to sever diplomatic relations. Moroccan leaders bear responsibility for the successive crises that have drawn us into a tunnel without an exit.
Despite the severance of ties, the Moroccan regime expanded, once again, its heinous and malicious conspiracy against Algeria, resorting to the help of its “old and new” ally, the Zionist entity, as the “two loathsome lovers” concluded, in January 2023, new agreements related to intelligence, air defense and electronic warfare, targeting the security of Algeria.
Morocco’s Makhzen regime betrays All Arabs, not only Algeria!
The betrayal of the royal palace is not limited to Algeria, but all Arabs. This is illustrated through a resounding and despicable episode of espionage for the benefit of the Zionist Entity. According to testimonies from the Zionist Entity’s top Mossad and Shin-Bet officials at the time, published in the Zionist press, the Sharifian monarch then provided top-secret recordings of closed-door discussions in Casablanca between Arab leaders before the war of 1967. The Zionist Entity had subsequently thanked Hassan II for having greatly contributed to the military victory against its Arab enemies during the 1967 war. Meir Amit, head of the Mossad at the time, dubbed the Moroccan operation as “one of the supreme glories of “Israeli” intelligence” in a memo to Prime Minister Levi Eshkol.
More recently on December 10, 2020, Morocco, whose king is the Chairman of the El-Quds Committee, normalized its relations with the Zionist Entity in exchange for the recognition by former US President Donald Trump of the kingdom’s alleged “sovereignty” over Western Sahara. This barter was strongly condemned throughout the world and especially by the Moroccan people who took to the streets for several days to express their rejection of this agreement, demonstrations often repressed by the regime in place.
Morocco is known for invoid justifications as it did following normalizing ties with the Zionist Entity. It claimed, at that time, that stinking normalization would build bridges with the Zionist entity with a view to helping solve the Palestinian dossier, however, its move, along with all normalizers, did not present a single successful example in this regard.
Morocco, Zionist Entity have maintained informal ties since King Hassan II:
In 2020, UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco signed normalization agreements with the Zionist Entity, under the auspices of the US, and held a high-profile security meeting in the Negev. However, for decades, relations between Morocco and the Zionist Entity have always been more than just cordial. Although Morocco did not formally recognize the entity until the Abraham Accords, it maintained informal ties with it. Observers consider 2020 normalization as a resume of relations as this latter date back to the 1960s, during the reign of the late King Hassan II. Relations were marked by the immigration of Moroccan Jews to the Zionist Entity and meetings between officials from the two sides. Noting that Morocco was home to the largest Jewish community in the Arab world, most of whom came from Spain after the 1491 expulsion by the Spanish Catholic monarchy.
According to many media resources, Hassan II invited Zionist spies from Shin Bet and Mossad to spy on the Arab leaders’ activities at the 1965 Arab League Summit held in Casablanca, thus, was instrumental in causing the Arabs’ defeat to the Zionist Entity in the 1967 Six-Day War.
On July 22, 1986, Zionist Prime Minister Shimon Peres secretly flew to Morocco and was received by King Hassan II who exchanged with him several-hour talks, a move strongly slammed by Moroccan political forces and the Arab League. At the outset, Morocco did not acknowledge the Zionist leader’s presence, nor did the state-controlled radio, television or newspapers. However, the visit was confirmed later by the Zionist officials in Al Quds. The confirmation came after a flurry of rumors spread that Mr. Peres and a small entourage had left for Morocco. Hassan II’s move was aimed at breaking the deadlock to recognize the criminal Entity; however, the fierce objection obliged him to withdraw his attempt. Nonetheless, Hassan II maintained a bond with Peres, and Peres voiced his condolences when Hassan II died in 1999.
Official relations between them saw light in 1994 at a low level, before Morocco froze them in 2000, following the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada.
During that period, more precisely in 1994, a Zionist liaison office was opened in Rabat, and two years later, Morocco opened a liaison office in the occupied territories as well. Morocco, faced with harsh criticism from Muslim world, tried to justify its actions, claiming that the establishment of these relations would help maintain dialogue and understanding to reach a just and comprehensive peace.
In 1999, relations became warmer and warmer with the Zionist Entity issuing a stamp bearing the image of King Hassan II, following his death. One can notice that King Mohammed VI of Morocco, whose reign began in 1999, followed the footsteps of his father, maintaining unofficial relations with the Zionist Entity. He opted for a Jewish adviser to help him reign the country. In this vein, Morocco World news agency stated in an article, entitled:” Audrey Azoulay ‘Deservedly’ Won UNESCO Chief Vote”, that Mohammed VI’s advisor, André Azoulay, was an instrumental Jewish Moroccan who played a key role in facilitating the growth of Morocco in both economic and political terms.
According to Anadolu Agency, the volume of trade exchange between the both sides in that year reached about $50 million, and some 50,000 Zionists visited Morocco, as stated by the Zionist Liaison office in the kingdom.
On May 12, 2000, a Zionist military delegation of 25 experts from the air force visited the southern regions of Morocco.
On Sept. 22 of the same year, Zionist businessmen representing 24 companies specializing in agricultural technologies, visited Morocco at the invitation of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Services in Casablanca.
Following the suspension of relations on Oct. 23, 2000, Haaretz announced on Sept. 1, 2003, that the then Zionist Foreign Minister, Silvan Shalom, embarked on a visit to Morocco and held meetings with King Mohammed VI and FM Mohamed Benaissa. The Kuwaiti official news agency, for itself, reported the news.
On July 4, 2007, the then Zionist Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni held a meeting with her Moroccan counterpart, Mohamed Benaissa, in Paris.
On Sept. 4, 2009, King Mohammed VI held phone talks with the then Zionist Prime Minister.
In February 2019, the Zionist Channel 13 and the Times of “Israel” news website reported that Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had secretly met with the Moroccan Foreign Minister, Nasser Bourita, in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. There was no immediate comment from Rabat. The website added that the meeting aimed at arranging visits, normalizing ties, and offering help to Morocco regarding Iran.
On April 28, 2019, the account of “Israel’s official Arabic” on Twitter shared a picture of King Hassan II and Peres’ meeting in Rabat in 1986.
On Aug. 24, 2020, the Moroccan Prime Minister, Saad-Eddine El-Othmani, said: “Morocco rejects any normalization with the Zionist entity because this strengthens its position in continuing to violate the rights of the Palestinian people.”
However, on Dec. 10, Morocco announced its intention to resume official contacts and diplomatic relations with the Zionist Entity “as soon as possible.”
In a statement issued by the royal court, Rabat revealed its intention to “facilitate direct flights to transport Jews of Moroccan origin and Israeli tourists to and from Morocco”.
It spoke of “developing innovative relations in the economic and technological fields,” and stressed: “work to reopen liaison offices in the two countries, as was the case in the past for many years until 2002”.
The Kingdom attributed these anticipated steps to “the special ties between the Jewish community of Moroccan origin, including those in the Zionist entity, with the person of the Moroccan monarch”.
Following this roller-coaster journey, the Zionist Entity and Morocco made their longstanding—albeit concealed—friendship official in December 2020 when they signed a normalization agreement that ensured “full diplomatic, peaceful, and friendly relations” under US patronage.
Subsequently, a range of agreements were signed between the North African country and the Zionist Entity.
The two sides inked an agreement that will allow direct flights. Senior Advisor to the U.S. President Jared Kushner and the Zionist Entity’s National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat were among the high-level officials on board the flight.
On 25 July 2021, two Zionist carriers launched direct commercial flights to Marrakech from Tel Aviv. On 11 August 2021, both sides signed three accords on political consultations, aviation and culture. In November 2021, Morocco and the Zionist Entity signed a defense agreement.
Besides, both sides inked a formal cybersecurity agreement to share information, research, and development on cyber warfare. On August 11, Zionist Foreign Minister Yair Lapid visited Morocco, signaling that his government is placing its relationship with Morocco high on its agenda.
More recently, and during a meeting, held in January 2023, and chaired by Belkhair Al-Farouq, Inspector General of the Royal Armed Forces, and Dror Shalom, Director of the Office of Political-Military Affairs at the Zionist Ministry of Defense, various fields of bilateral military cooperation were discussed, especially logistics, and training, as well as the acquisition and modernization of equipment. The two sides agreed to further strengthen what the Zionists called “more cooperation to expand it to include other fields, especially intelligence, air defense and electronic warfare.” The Inspector General of the Royal Armed Forces said, according to the source, that “Moroccan-Israeli military cooperation carries common interests and is based on trust and mutual support”!!
For the upcoming shameless rendez-vous between the Zionist Entity and Morocco, the latter will host a meeting that will bring together the Zionist Entity and the Foreign Ministers of Arab countries that signed the so-called “Abraham Accords”. Reuters quoted the Zionist Entity’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen as saying that Morocco will host the second summit with the countries of normalization as the first one was held in the Egyptian Negev desert. It brought together the foreign ministers of Egypt, Morocco, the Emirates and Bahrain, with the foreign minister of the Zionist entity. This meeting, which was called for by the former foreign minister of the zionist entity, took place, noteworthy, in the presence of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
In short, Morocco is accelerating the pace of its embrace of the usurping entity in security, militarily, politically, economically and commercially as well. Their military relations are a real threat in the region, especially for Algeria as the first targeted regional power. They are collaborating on the “cyber Iron Dome” project, a common defense platform targeting as they say “common enemies”!
