Actualités du Sahara Marocain

New York, April 18, 2013

According to the London-based daily Arab news outlet Ashark Al Awsat, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, who is also a member of the US cabinet, is said to have taken the initiative of presenting a draft resolution to the Group of friends of the Western Sahara (United States, France, Russia, United Kingdom and Spain) on her own and without informing the Department of State not the Pentagon.

The same sources added that Susan Rice, who is believed to have a close relationship with Kerry Kennedy, President of the RFK Center for human rights, which has been leading a public relations campaign in order to push the United States and the other members of the Security Council to include a human rights monitoring mechanism within the Mandate of the MIUNRSO (United Nations Mision for a Referendum in the Western Sahara), made this move in order to appease her friend.

Hatem Labtioui, the author if the news story added that the Pentagon “expressed its rejection of this move, which is undermines of a strategic US ally.”

However, sources acquainted with the subject told Morocco World News in New York that this account appears unlikely, adding that it is impossible to imagine that a great power makes a decision without coordination between its different departments.

“Although it can be true that Suzan Rice is the one who influenced this decision within the American Administration, in light of its friendship with the Kerry Kennedy, it would be foolish to think that she can make such a move without prior consultation without the Secretary of State,” a diplomat who asked to speak on the condition of anonymity told MWN in New York.

It is worth noting that the draft resolution on the extension of the MINURSO’s mandate has still not been circulated to the members of the Security Council. Up until now it is still under discussion among the Group of Friend of the Western Sahara.

Fury, rage and red mist are genuinely heartfelt by large majority of Moroccans. There is a strong feeling of betrayal, treachery and double-crossing from the new US Secretary of State, John Kerry, against a centuries-old staunch US ally. Some political movers and shakers are demanding that the government reassesses completely its age-old friendly US policy by inviting the Chinese and Russian navies to engage in joint military exercises in Moroccan territorial waters along the Strait of Gibraltar as soon as possible.More so, the Russians are desperate to find a new Mediterranean base for their navy, which is about to lose its spot in Syria. The new Moroccan military port near Tanger Med is a good strategic place for Russia to consider. They would love to get a foothold in this corner of the globe where the world's merchant navy operates.

Some scholars are calling for the introduction of a new patriot act whereby people who work outside the constitution in Moroccan soil (see Aminatou Haidar and her likes) should lose their citizenship rights (ID card, passport, free health care, free education, subsidized food and fuel etc.).

Morocco should withdraw its autonomy plan with immediate effect. Morocco should stop all negotiations with the Polisario Front until a census of the population is carried out by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. UNHCR's job is to identify who has genuine and solid family ties to Morocco's Western Sahara. The guess is that only 40.000 are from the Saharan provinces. The rest, i.e. the majority of the refugees, are Sahraouis and Touaregues from Mauritania, Mali and Algeria-controlled part of central Sahara. The nomadic tribes who used to roam freely the Great Sahara under Spanish and French rules before settling in the refugee camps as of 1975 should be put on a separate list. Morocco cannot take them all. We may only take few of them in a final agreement to settle the issue.
As to those who have engaged in mixed marriages during the conflict, namely Sahraouis from Morocco who have married Sahraouis from Mauritania, Mali or Algeria, they should be put on a separate list as well. All countries involved should get their fair share of refugees. Morocco cannot invite them all in these times of economic crisis.
More importantly, once the census is realised and the population with a genuine link to Morocco is known, fair and free elections should be held in separatists Tindouf camp to determine the true representatives of the populations. The head of Polisario separatist group Abdelaziz and his cohorts will surely be cut off by the free vote. It's these new democratically elected people that Morocco should negotiate with.

Finally, all the Sahraouis who are members of Moroccan political parties and are holding offices in Rabat or locally in their Saharan towns and cities should held a general meeting and elect a committee whcih shall represent them in future peace negotations with the Saharouis of the other side.

The rest of the Moroccans, i.e. government officials, diplomats and experts, should be present only as advisers. Let them talk between themselves to solve this conundrum.

The US State Department is ‘in discussion’ over proposing the MINURSO expand its mission to include monitoring human rights as confirmed by the US embassy in Rabat. This action could be the outcome of the inability of the former US Ambassador Kaplan to influence the Kingdom of Morocco to budge from its position on Jerusalem.

Just as his predecessors failed to influence the late King Hassan II, Mr. Kaplan has also failed in his mission with his son Mohammed VI on Jerusalem.The latest visit of Mr. Obama to Israel may have ignited Israel’s demands of the US to put pressure on the Kingdom of Morocco for its strong position on Jerusalem. Mr. Obama gave everyone the impression that he was willing to give Israel whatever it wants. What the Israelis know and Mr. Obama does not know is that Jerusalem to the Moroccans is as sacred as the Western Sahara.

One of Mr. Kaplan’s predecessors, Mr. Ginsburg, who was the US Ambassador to Morocco in the Clinton Administration, also tried to influence the Kingdom of Morocco on its position on Jerusalem and failed.

One of the most vocal figures who tried in so many ways over the years to influence his Late Majesty Hassan II was the Chairman of the US House of Representatives Sub-Committee on Africa, Congressman Stephan J. Solarz, who served in the US Congress for 9 terms. I covered Representative Solarz as a reporter and got to know him and concluded that he was using the Sub-committee on Africa to exploit the Moroccan-Algerian conflict over the Sahara in the hope of pressuring Morocco to recognize Israel and budge from its irrevocable position on Jerusalem. Neither the late King Hassan II nor his son King Mohammed VI have recognized Israel and exchanged Ambassadors or budged an iota on their Jerusalem position. This does not mean that the Kingdom of Morocco and the Moroccans are not in favor of a just and lasting peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis. There is a large Moroccan Jewish population living in Israel that is still considered to be Moroccan by the laws of the Kingdom of Morocco.

Many US ambassadors serving in Morocco, whether Christian, Jewish or Christian of Arab origin, failed to make their pressure felt and extract from the Moroccan leadership the diplomatic recognition of Israel or the change in the Moroccan position over Jerusalem. Everyone thought that the Moroccan point faible was the Western Sahara. They failed to acknowledge the fact that the commitment of the two Kings and the Moroccan population behind them has proven the Western Sahara to be Morocco’s sacred point fort. Pressure did not work and will not work and the Algerian government and the generals know that.

Another issue popped up from New England in the US which is a main consumer of liquefied gas from Algeria. Furthermore, the relationship with Algeria on the part of some leading families from New England dates back to the time when the late President John F. Kennedy was a senator from Massachusetts and when he made his famous speech on the floor of the US Senate calling for Algeria’s independence in the 50’s. The Algerians in recognition, once they became independent, have been fueling energy to New England, thus creating dependence and an addiction to Algerian liquefied gas.

Two new players who came on the scene are Miss Kerry Kennedy, President of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, and the new Secretary of State Mr. John Kerry, both from New England. Not only are they interested in keeping the gas flowing but they are also interested in interfering in Western Sahara.

In what medium are these two new players preaching? The language of Human Rights! I do not know any freedom loving person who is not a believer in human rights. All of my friends whether in Morocco or outside Morocco, whether rich or poor, whether man or women, whether gay or lesbian, whether white, black, brown, Asian, Arab, Jew, Christian and Moslem and schooled or not believe in the dignity of human beings and their inalienable human rights. King Mohammed VI has initiated the aura of reconciliation and the nurturing of Human rights in the Kingdom of Morocco. Of course we have a long way to go but it is a beginning. Did Algeria do the same?

In this instance, the use of human rights as a political ploy by Kerry and John to please Algeria and its surrogate the so-called Polisario to maintain the flow of liquefied gas to New England and to pressure the Kingdom of Morocco on the Western Sahara is not a good strategy. They should visit Algeria and preach the same to Algeria. Regardless of what the instigators do, they know very well that gas will continue flowing even if there is not an iota of change in the Kingdom of Morocco and the Moroccan people on their commitment to Jerusalem and the Western Sahara.

Another issue which may have enflamed the situation is the Kingdom of Morocco's African Policy whereas Morocco’s opening to its Sahel partners to the south such as Mauretania, Senegal, Mali, Chad, Niger, Ivory Coast, Gabon and others is not liked nor accepted by the “Africanists” at the States Department. The policy of Mohammed VI to go south is causing problems for US policy makers on Africa. In the view of US academicians and policy makers, North Africa was never considered as a part of Africa. The Kingdom of Morocco and its King Mohammed VI’s overture to the Sahel countries has destroyed that characterization of Africa and the myth and generated a new partnership and joint undertaking based on sustainable economic and cultural development and mutual respect between nations and people. This avant garde African policy of King Mohammed VI and the Kingdom of Morocco to link in a solid manner with the countries in the Sahel and in south of the Sahara is definitely going to isolate Algeria and put Morocco and France in the forefront on the economic and cultural issues at the expense of Algeria and the USA for not doing anything for Africa for half a century.

There is a need for US foreign policy in the Maghreb and in the Sahel to be based on moral principles and historical realities.

No US Ambassador, whether coming from the Foreign Service or political appointment through financial contributions to a presidential election campaign can tell the Kingdom how to run its affairs vis-à-vis Israel and Jerusalem and its Western Sahara, nor can New Englanders whose region has benefitted from Algeria’s gas tell Morocco about human rights or to attempt to stop Morocco with working with its southern partners. They cannot succeed in this mission. Why not? Moroccans know that The King and the Kingdom of Morocco, its honor and territorial integrity are not for sale.