As Morocco nears final close to Sahara issue, Algeria beats drums of war
After about five decades of nurturing a separatist chimera in the Sahara territory, Algeria is beating the drums of war again deploying troops on the Moroccan borders as the Sahara issue nears a final close under Moroccan sovereignty.
International media has been warning of an Algerian attempt to end the state of “low intensity” war it wages on Morocco through its Polisario proxies by engaging directly in the armed conflict.
Preparations for a high intensity war is underway with the most recent heavy weaponry deployment on the Moroccan border in Bechar and Tindouf, which Algeria offered to its Polisario proxies as a rear base, warned Italy’s portal Notizie Geopolitiche.
After foiling the Polisario hit-and-run tactics without violating Algeria’s territorial sovereignty by engaging in hot pursuits thanks to the security wall, Morocco engaged in a diplomatic offensive backed by an autonomy plan described by the UN as serious and credible.
Since its return to the African Union in 2017, support for Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara grew exponentially with 29 countries opening consulates in the Sahara territory.
The recognition by the US of Morocco’s historic rights to the Sahara, following by support for Moroccan stance on the Sahara by France, Spain, Israel and Gulf monarchies brought the Sahara issue to a final close.
Most of the rest of the World backs the autonomy plan as a lasting political solution, whereas the number of countries that turn in Algeria’s orbit keeps retracting to South Africa and a handful of failed states mired in Cold War ideological anachronism.
In its defense of the separatist cause, Algeria reaped nothing but a series of setbacks.
The recycled military regime in Algeria, mostly men in their seventies and eighties, would not let the Sahara issue be resolved diplomatically. After their failure in pulling the strings of the Polisario to declare a resumption of fighting in 2020, no change has been made on the ground.
Algeria has overshadowed the Polisario in international diplomatic fora as it also plans to replace Polisario fighters on the battlefield.
To do so, it has been creating a “fog of war” by unilaterally cutting diplomatic and trade ties with Morocco, while using its media mouthpieces to spit venom on Morocco going as far as dehumanizing the Moroccan people in a mania that did not spare sports championships.
The most recent hostile decision was visa imposing on holders of Moroccan passports.
Waving the threat of war with Morocco- since puppet president Tebboune took power- has been used to distract ordinary Algerians from the economic and social failures that made Algerian youth top the list of candidates for illegal migration through the Western Mediterranean routes.
Yet, many analysts think that if Algeria pulls the trigger, it will open Morocco’s eastern borders Pandora’s box and show the World whom Morocco has been at odds with in its legitimate quest to restore its pre-colonial territorial integrity.
In the face of Algeria’s warmongering, Morocco shows an indifference on the surface but, on the ground, stands ready to thwart any violation of its national sovereignty-whether in the southern or northern borders- as it continues bolstering its deterrence capabilities by upgrading its equipment with latest technologies.
