The statement by the U.S. State Department spokesperson affirming that the US position on the recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over its Sahara remains “unchanged” has “dashed” the hopes of circles hostile to the Kingdom which should inevitably adapt their approach to the American vision on the issue, says political scientist Mustapha Tossa.
All the more so since “these hostile circles had great hopes of seeing Joe Biden’s new administration revise stance on the Moroccan Sahara and for this end, enormous means of lobbying, in particular from Algeria, were mobilized in the corridors of Washington to try to reverse the trend”, underlines the political scientist in an Op-ed published Saturday by information website Atlasinfo under the title “America Dashed the hopes of Morocco’s enemies”.
According to Mustapha Tossa, all the means were used to try to influence U.S. legislators and the opinion makers. But in vain”.
“This pressure did not come only from the Algerian regime for whom the American recognition was a gigantic disavowal. It also came from other European circles known for their hostility towards Morocco”.
According to the author of the article, a representative of Germany at the UN had called for an emergency meeting of the Security Council to try to slow down this American dynamic on the Sahara issue.
“Then there was the attempt by the Spanish authorities, in full arm wrestling with Morocco, to capture the attention of Joe Biden on the matter at the recent NATO Summit, but in vain,” he points out.
Tossa underlined, in this regard, that “it is this tense equation which is currently at the origin of a deaf showdown between Rabat, Madrid and Berlin”.
According to the political scientist, “those who bet on an American change on this issue were in fact betting on a manifest desire of the candidate Joe Biden to disavow the diplomatic legacy of Donald Trump.”
Did he not do it for the Paris Climate Agreement that Trump had spectacularly torn apart at the start of his mandate? Didn’t he do it on the Iran nuclear deal? Not to mention a peaceful relationship with European allies and NATO that Trump, by nature, doctrinal conviction or provocation, regularly put on the grill,” Tossa recalled.
Morocco’s ennemies were waiting each time for a signal, an indication of a possible reversal that did not show up, the expert said. However, the statement made by the State Department spokesman Ned Price was devastating for them, as the U.S. official confirmed that the Trump administration’s recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara remains the position of the current administration and that this “position remains unchanged”, said Mustapha Tossa.
The political scientist notes, in this regard, that “this is undoubtedly the first time that the Biden administration validates with such clarity the historic decision of Donald Trump.”
According to the author of the article, “this U.S. clarification will leave traces. First on the Algerian regime whose support for the Polisario separatists will look more and more like a futile fight against chimeras and windmills. Then on some European circles, which should inevitably adapt their approach to the time and to the American vision on the matter”.
For Morocco, the political scientist pointed out, “this confirmation about which it had no doubt, will allow it to continue to develop its arguments for peace and for ending the crisis at the various international fora”, adding that “for decades , Moroccan diplomacy has denounced an artificially maintained crisis that does not serve the interests of the peoples of the region, but serve instead as a screen for an Algerian regime known for its structural kleptomania and as a pressure card for some European circles that are disturbed by Morocco’s actuve policy at the regional and continental level along with economic development”.
