Morocco turns the page on management and embarks on a change approach
Written by: Dr. Abdullah Boussouf (Historian, Secretary General of the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad)
We have spoken more than once about the insight of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, his far-sightedness, and his profound foresight. Our discussion was not based on patriotism or a false sense of belonging. Rather, we proved this with numbers and real-life evidence, which refute all speculation and false news from known sources.
We say this as we deeply contemplate the new coordinates for the Moroccan Sahara issue, inspired by the shift from “management to change,” which was inspired by the speech at the opening of the legislative session of October 2024, when His Majesty said: “I have said, since my accession to the throne, that we will move in the issue of our territorial integrity from a stage of management to a stage of change, internally and externally, and in all dimensions of this issue; and I also called for a transition from a reactive approach to taking the initiative and being firm and proactive…”
But let me share with you... my first consideration of the significance of this shift in approach and dimensions, and the multiplicity of spaces of work between the interior and the exterior, and secondly, the symbolism of the timing of this transition from a reactive approach to taking the initiative and being proactive.
Here, too, there is no room for coincidence or improvisation. The secret to all these diplomatic victories and the positive dynamics in the Moroccan Sahara issue is the wise leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI.
I believe that His Majesty the King's announcement of the end of one approach and the beginning of another is a new call to research and study the reasons for our success and superiority, despite all the plots and traps woven by the Algerian military regime, in the darkness of night, in closed rooms and in backyards.
The Algerian regime's belief in its hostility to Morocco has driven it not only to conclude arms deals or to embrace terrorist militias to train a group of mercenaries, but also to buy votes, pens, and even reports from non-governmental organizations. We have spoken about this more than once, and have elaborated on the conspiracy equations and media mud, in order to distort Morocco's image abroad.
The very act of pausing to contemplate the new approach to change prompts us to re-read the picture and the series of events from new angles, and confronts us with an important fact: the success of the management phase, thanks to royal genius and diplomacy.
The Algerian military regime attempted to exhaust Morocco with all the money it had from Sonatrach, crafting a parallel universe narrative. At the same time, Morocco was confidently advancing on the Western Sahara issue, setting an unassailable ceiling—namely, the autonomy initiative—and declaring the Sahara the mother of all Moroccan issues, one it would never negotiate.
But let us note some of the battles of the management phase, when reports from non-governmental organizations conspired against Morocco, to obstruct Morocco’s initiatives to resolve its primary national issue, whether when it presented the autonomy initiative in April 2007, or when it returned to the African Union in 2017, and what followed in terms of significant international recognitions (three of which have veto power), the opening of consulates in cities in the Moroccan Sahara, and the development of the resolutions of the UN Security Council, which is exclusively charged with examining the issue.
The spiteful regime has pushed some NGOs to promote Moroccan names and nominate them for awards, with paid media coverage. Meanwhile, the Algerian evil architects are keen to exploit some internal events according to the devil's engineering in many of their details, tailored to specific goals, including disrupting Morocco, threatening its stability, and distorting its image abroad.
It all started with Aminatou Haidara, a Moroccan citizen holding a passport, living in a city in the Moroccan Sahara, and enjoying full civil and political rights. However, her quest for gratuitous confrontation with the Moroccan authorities and her raising of hostile slogans were not gratuitous. Rather, she was nominated for more than one award in the name of defending human rights, as she was nominated for the Sakharov Prize in 2005, the Juan Maria Bandrés Award in Madrid in 2006, the Silver Rose Award in 2007, by the Austrian Solidarity Organization, and then the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Justice and Human Rights in 2008.
All this organized media and human rights hype culminated in the events of the Gdeim Izik camp in October 2010, and the raising of the slogan of human rights in the Moroccan Sahara. Morocco responded forcefully before the judiciary and fair trial institutions, opening branches of the National Council for Human Rights in Laayoune and Dakhla, and announcing massive development projects, such as the Atlantic port in Dakhla, clean energy, and desalination plants.
Morocco's return to the African fold in 2017 was a source of concern for the military regime, prompting it to redouble its efforts, whether by exploiting the Rif events to destabilize Morocco, by funding a blatant media campaign to market Zefzafi's nomination for the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament as a human rights and humanitarian event of 2018, or by re-nominating Aminatou Haidara for the Alternative Nobel Prize by a Swedish organization in 2019, receiving 200,000 euros.
What is ironic about this process is the joint statement between the Swedish organization Right Livelihood and Kennedy for Justice and Human Rights about the person of “Aminatou Haidara.”
What is noteworthy in this legal and media play is its reliance on awards with global legal and political symbolism, through the choice of the alternative Nobel Prize in Sweden first, which coincides with the Nobel Peace Prize, which means exploiting media coverage and employing it to undermine Morocco’s image abroad, and secondly the “Sakharov Prize” by the European Parliament, which was involved in the negotiations of the agriculture and fisheries agreement, and harnessing a British organization to file lawsuits regarding the Moroccan Sahara, then the media mudslinging conspiracy through Pegasus and the “Qatargate” case, and thirdly the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for Justice and Human Rights, by employing the family name of the awardee and his Democratic Party, as well as the states of the Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
It is clear from all this that the Algerian regime, by buying or pushing human rights organizations to issue reports or award prizes, did not aim to improve human rights in Morocco. Rather, it aimed to destabilize the country by exploiting human rights issues, our people in the Rif, and obstructing the development of the Saharan regions.
Morocco's response has been wise and profound, announcing strong economic, social, and political initiatives, such as the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline, the Royal Atlantic Initiative, and the development of robust infrastructure in Morocco's Saharan regions.
The response was also strong and deterrent through the Guerguerat crossing operation, and the Royal Armed Forces securing the passage of goods, trucks, and athletes between the Moroccan/Mauritanian border, in November 2021, after the Polisario mercenaries rampaged and obstructed traffic.
The language of reality, results and numbers tells us that the royal genius was stronger than all those conspiracies that all failed. The King announced in lofty speeches that no one can stop the positive dynamic of the Sahara issue. We are now moving into a new phase, which is change after the management phase, which was full of challenges, conspiracies and mobilization, to weaken the image of Morocco abroad, the royal institution and the Emirate of the Faithful.
The ball is now in the court of parallel diplomacy, the elites, and Moroccans abroad, to take proactive initiatives with all possible boldness regarding the Moroccan Sahara issue, because the opponents of territorial and national unity are only waiting for moments of relaxation, and there is no consolation for the spiteful.
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