French President Emmanuel Macron targets Turkey alone whenever he talks about the Maghreb, and through his excessive focus on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Elysee resident forgets, at the height of his prejudice, that the most serious threats to French influence in the Maghreb come primarily from Russia and the United Arab Emirates.
With this introduction, the prominent French historian and professor specializing in Middle Eastern issues, Jean-Pierre Filiu, entered into his latest blog article on the French newspaper Le Monde, to recall Macron's statements that still cause confusion between Paris and Algeria, where he strongly attacked "media disinformation" and "" The propaganda published by the Turks in the Maghreb, accusing them of “completely rewriting history there,” so that the enthusiasm led him to liken the supposed “colonialism” of Algeria by “Turkey” to France’s colonization of it.
Moscow's unwavering support for Algeria
Professor Filiu saw that the French president's blindness in the Maghreb stems directly from the flawed policy he followed in Libya during the first three years of his tenure, where he was, under the cover of "reconciliation" with the internationally recognized Tripoli government, in fact providing decisive support to retired Major General Khalifa Haftar. This encouraged the latter to re-launch the civil war in 2019 and torpedoed the UN mediation efforts.
Thus, France was discreetly joining - as Filio says - the camp of the prominent godfathers of warlords in eastern Libya, such as the Emirates, Russia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, but Haftar's attack ended with throwing the Tripoli government into the arms of Turkey, whose intervention overturned the military situation, and came with the defeat that enabled the start of the war. The current Libyan peace process, which France has faithfully joined this time.
The writer was surprised by the French indulgence towards Russian goals in North Africa, and at the same time looking at Turkish ambitions as hostile in the first place, even though Moscow is Algeria’s main military partner, both in terms of weapons supplies and training of cadres, “It is ironic to hear the French president condemning The political system in Algeria and describes it as anti-French, without ever mentioning Algeria's main external ally Russia, especially since Macron does not hesitate to criticize the authorities in Mali when they consider resorting to Russian "mercenaries".
Filiu: The Emirati and French sides meet in their anti-Turkish obsession, and Paris forgets that Mohammed bin Zayed himself maintains shameful relations with France's declared enemies, starting with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, and that, humiliated by Haftar's setbacks in Libya, he seeks "revenge" by sabotaging The democratic experience in Tunisia
France's uncle from the Emirates
The writer cautions that the French president clearly talks about his closeness and even his complicity with Mohammed bin Zayed, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and the de facto ruler of the UAE, and receives him pompously at the Napoleon III theater, as if the peace treaty signed in September 2020 between Israel and the Emirates had removed all reservations The remaining Elysee on Abu Dhabi diplomacy.
Thus, according to Filio, he meets the obsession of the Emirati and French parties against Turkey, and Paris forgets that "Mohammed bin Zayed himself establishes shameful relations with France's declared enemies, starting with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, and that after he was humiliated by Haftar's setbacks in Libya, he seeks "revenge." By sabotaging the democratic experience in Tunisia,” the incentives offered by Abu Dhabi and Cairo played a major role in President Kais Saied’s decision last July to “suspend” the constitutional process in Tunisia.
The writer concluded that the UAE does not only play the role of grave digger towards the democratic transition in Tunisia, but also plays the role of instigators of the war in the current escalation between Algeria and Morocco, and Macron should have taken such destabilizing interventions into account, especially as they come from the “partner” The strategist, who claims to be very close to him.
He concluded with the hope that the clarity of vision shown by Macron towards the Algerian authorities would not come late with regard to the UAE's plans in the region, or else the French-Maghreb relations would enter a region of increasing turmoil, from which Turkey would naturally benefit, without being the cause of it.