Algeria: Tebboune, last dance of a slaughtered roaster!
The latest remarks made by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune before the lawmakers of the two chambers of the Parliament show the deep predicament of a delusional regime sensing that its days are numbered following the collapse of Assad dictatorship.
At a time international observers were expecting a détente in Algerian-French relations amid swirling rumors of an imminent release of writer Boualem Sansal and an appeasement in Algerian-Moroccan relations with the return of Trump to the White House, Tebboune chooses the path of escalation, pushing his country to the edge of a cliff.
His paranoid and virulent speech is not out of character. He lashed out at France for its colonial legacy and bloody war of independence, demanding an official apology. But the main reason behind the Algerian regime’s escalating rhetoric is the support of Paris to Morocco’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over its Sahara.
In a letter sent to King Mohammed VI, French President Emmanuel Macron said: “For France, this territory’s present and future fall under Morocco’s sovereignty”, affirming that the Autonomy plan offered by the North African Kingdom is the ONLY solution to the Sahara regional conflict.
France joined the United States and over twenty European Union countries including Spain, Germany and Netherlands in backing Morocco’s territorial integrity.
Paris’ refusal to reverse or put on hold its stand has irked extremely the Algerian military junta, de factor rulers, facing a growing popular uproar in social media networks heralding the return of the pro-democracy Hirak movement demanding regime change.
At a time the international community is recognizing the Moroccanness of the Sahara and supporting the Royal Atlantic initiatives seeking to foster regional peace, shared prosperity and stability, the Algerian regime continues to cling to an obsolete position, failing to adapt to geopolitical changes taking place.
Tebboune continues his absurd statistics and embarrassing statements about his country’s economic performance, unemployment rate, desalination capacity…but his duplicitous figures, exaggerations and lies prompt widespread derision, undermining further the country’s image and its credibility.
The Algerian regime’s inability to adopt a new diplomatic discourse and respond to social expectations casts doubts over its capacity to reinvent itself to weather the storm that is gathering forces.
According to some analysts, the question is no longer how long the Algerian rulers will hold but rather when the implosion of their country will occur?
Algeria is currently suffering from a growing diplomatic isolation and deepening social, economic & political crises, while Tebboune’s speech demonstrates that their ostrich policy has reached its ultimate limits.
