Morocco: Mohammed VI deplores tensions with Algeria and calls for the reopening of borders

The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, November 17, 2018. FADEL SENNA / AFP

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5 mins

In Morocco, on the occasion of the 22nd anniversary of his accession to the throne, Mohammed VI delivered this Saturday, July 31, a speech to the Nation.

An intervention that did not go unnoticed because the king deplored the tensions between his country and Algeria.

"

 You will never have to fear malice on the part of Morocco

 ", he launched to the address of his neighbor before calling for the reopening of the borders with Algeria.

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This is an unexpected statement to say the least from the Moroccan sovereign, while

relations between the two countries

had deteriorated further in recent times. Mohammed VI played, on Saturday, appeasement, deploring the tensions with Algeria 

:

 " 

the security and stability of Algeria, and the tranquility of its people are organically linked to the security and stability of Morocco

 "

,

he launched during his address to the Nation. The King of Morocco invited Algerian President

Abdelmadjid Tebboune

to make wisdom prevail 

" and "to 

work in unison for the development of relations

 " between the two countries.

Mohammed VI reiterated his call for the reopening of the borders with his neighbor - borders closed since the summer of 1994 - at the initiative of Algeria.

This declaration comes in a context of turmoil between the two countries.

If Rabat and Algiers have been clashing for decades on

the question of Western Sahara

, the tension had risen a notch in recent days, after remarks by the Moroccan ambassador to the UN.

The latter had said, in mid-July, to support

the self-determination of the Kabyle people in Algeria

, an unbearable provocation in the eyes of Algiers, who recalled his ambassador to Morocco for consultations.

Dissociate the Sahara issue from the border issue

Morocco is very much in demand for the reopening of borders. It is even a very recurrent and very old speech in Mohammed VI. But fundamentally, Morocco wishes to dissociate the question of the Sahara from the question of borders. Algeria explains precisely on the one hand that it cannot reopen its borders with a country since it has a territorial dispute, and Morocco wants to dissociate the two. So, litigation and brawl over the Sahara from the point of view of Morocco, open arms as is the case, this time, when it comes to Algeria, the Algerian people in particular, to go through above the heads of the leaders and the army,

analyzes the historian Pierre Vermeren, who teaches contemporary Maghreb at the University of Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne

.

I don't see that as a contradiction.

I see there, on the contrary, the perpetuation of a sort of duel, of duality which is ultimately explained for political reasons there too, since the king of Morocco, as commander of believers must also, politically and religiously, to be kind to other peoples.

There is the mystique of brother peoples in the Maghreb.

There, it is once again reactivated,

concludes the researcher.

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  • Morocco

  • Algeria

  • Mohammed VI