REACTION. Without ever naming a country, the King of Morocco denounced, Friday August 20, “methodical attacks” against the kingdom
A straight to the point speech
According to him, Morocco is targeted « because it has been a fully constituted State for more than twelve centuries, in addition to a long-term Amazigh history, and that for more than four centuries it has been governed by a citizen monarchy, presiding over the destiny of the country and shaping it in a total symbiosis between the Throne and the people. »
More broadly, “Morocco, like certain countries of the Arab Maghreb, is facing deliberate and premeditated aggression. Clinging to […] obsolete considerations, the enemies of the territorial integrity of the kingdom do not want Morocco to remain the free, strong and influential nation that it has always been,” he said. According to the monarch, certain countries, particularly European ones, “fear for their economic interests, their markets and their spheres of influence in the Maghreb region.”
This royal speech comes in a context of strong tensions around Morocco. First, with its direct neighbor, Algeria. Earlier this week, on August 18, Algiers announced it was “reviewing” its relations with Morocco, accused of being involved in the deadly fires that ravaged the north of the country. Relations between Rabat and Algiers have been tense for decades due to Algeria’s support for the Polisario Front which is demanding a self-determination referendum in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, while Morocco is proposing an autonomy plan under its sovereignty. On July 31, on the occasion of Throne Day, Mohammed VI had invited, in a direct speech, the Algerian president « to make wisdom prevail » and « work in unison to develop relations » between the two countries. The monarch also reiterated his call to reopen the borders between the two countries, closed since the summer of 1994 at the initiative of Algeria.
On the international level, recently, the kingdom was accused of using the Pegasus spy software, designed by the Israeli company NSO, as part of a vast investigation carried out by a consortium of 17 international media outlets based on data obtained by the Forbidden Stories organization and by Amnesty International. Rabat categorically denied “these false and unfounded allegations” and initiated several legal proceedings in France, Spain and Germany. Journalists from different countries also filed complaints after the investigation published in July by this consortium, showing that the Pegasus software would have allowed several countries, including Morocco, to spy on journalists, politicians, human rights activists and even business leaders.
The sovereign saw it as “a vast campaign of denigration against [their] security institutions”, he defended. “They do not want to admit that the rules of the game have changed, that, from now on, our countries are fully capable of managing their affairs, of developing their resources and their potential, in the well-understood interest of our people. »
Start on new bases
Mohammed VI nevertheless then wished to “found solid, constructive and balanced relations, particularly with neighboring countries”, citing Spain, but also France and Germany, in this speech. For the monarch, the way out of the crisis can only be done from the top, whether in the recent crisis with Spain or in relations with international organizations. And to explain that some of the leaders of these countries “do not yet understand that the problem does not lie in the regimes of the countries of the greater Maghreb, but in their own, always tinged with a backwardness that is desperately resistant to the developments of the times.”
« Moreover, rather than supporting Morocco’s efforts within the framework of a desired balance between the countries of the region, reports have crossed all the limits of the acceptable, going so far as to recommend that the development dynamic of our country be slowed down, on the captious grounds that it creates a dissymmetry between the Maghrebi States », also denounced the king in his speech.
Nothing to slow down the internal agenda. Indeed, this speech comes in a context of preparation for the next legislative, regional and local elections on September 8. While waiting for this electoral meeting, the kingdom has embarked on a series of reforms and projects as part of the implementation of the Development Model and the National Development Pact.
source: lepoint.fr
