Middle East Monitor
In an interview with Quds Press, the dissident Algerian security expert Karim Moulay warned of the escalating tensions between Algeria and Rabat and on the security and stability of Sahel-Saharan states.
Moulay said that “a number of Algerian officials have purposely taken advantage of the Algerians’ celebration of the annual anniversary of the liberation revolution, yesterday, to make statements against Morocco. This is a desperate attempt to cover up the deteriorating economic and security conditions as well as the political impasse that the country has reached because of the decreasing fuel prices.”
Concerning the statements of Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel on the Moroccan investments in Africa, which he summarized in the laundering of cannabis money, Moulay stressed that “These statements were a political expression and not a real accusation. They are rather an attempt to escape from justifying the reasons for the failure of Algerian economy policies over the past decades.”
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Moulay predicted that tension in relations between Algeria and Rabat would escalate, especially after Morocco’s return to the African Union and the frequent political clashes between the two countries over the fate of Western Sahara.
He added “There is now news that the Algerian authorities are starting to build an electrified iron barrier along the land borders with Morocco that have been already closed since 1994. In addition, the Algerian regime is supporting the right of fate-determination, which the Polisario Front insists on as it considers it the only solution to the Western Sahara conflict.”
Moulay stressed that Algeria’s relations with Morocco on related to issues of drugs and the smuggling of goods and human beings is not true and that the essence of the conflict lies in attributing Algeria to the separatist vision of the Polisario Front, which is rejected by Morocco and considered a hostile act.
According to Moulay, the escalation of the Algerian-Moroccan conflict comes amid extremely complex and deteriorating security conditions. Algeria’s borders with Libya, Mali, Niger, Tunisia, Morocco, and Mauritania are in unstable conditions, in addition to the deteriorating internal economic situation, on the background of the continued decline in fuel prices as they are the main source of the Algerian economy.
