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Western sahara: Reshuffling Morocco’s Diplomatic Cadre

HASSAN MASIKY
06/06/12

Washington / Morocco News Board --- Now that Morocco decided not to cooperate with Mr. Christopher Ross, the United Nations Secretary-General's (UNSG) Special Envoy on the Western Sahara, Moroccan and international observers are scrutinizing Rabat diplomatic maneuvers hoping to read Morocco’s next move. However, silence in the halls of the Moroccan Foreign Ministry could be a sign that the Moroccan diplomacy may lack a plan on how to proceed under these new circumstances.If that is the case, the long overdue reshuffling of Morocco's diplomatic cadre in charge of the Sahara dossier may be in order.

The failure of Mr. El Othamani, Morocco Minister of Foreign Affairs,  well intentioned but naïf rapprochement policy with the Military backed Algerian government and the solidification of the one party system in Algeria are reminders that Morocco’s failure to frame the Western Sahara conflict as an Algerian-Moroccan border dispute  is at the root of the failure of the UN efforts. If Algeria’s position has not changed since its inception by the late Algerian President Boumedienne, Rabat has changed approaches but with limited successes.

According to several news agencies, both the UNSG and the United States restated their support for Mr. Ross who has called off plans to visit the region. Morocco’s assertion that Mr. Ross was "unbalanced and biased”, made the former American diplomat mission unsustainable.  Although Mr. Ross latest report is biased, the Moroccan government’s decision to withdraw its confidence form the UNSG envoy remains “injudicious and sloppy”.
Western diplomats are wondering how Mr. Ross, a respected veteran American diplomat and a former U.S. Ambassador, could be biased towards the position of the Polisario Front,  a Marxist guerilla group backed by an undemocratic Military junta in Algeria. In fact, Mr. Ross is not biased but rather his latest report is prejudiced.
As with any major United Nations report, U.N. staff, with the blessing of Mr. Ross, drafted the last annual UN report on Western Sahara. The anti-Morocco predispositions reside with the staffers who composed the language in the document. This fact begs the nagging questions, are Moroccan officials handling the Sahara dossier qualified, competent and experienced to handle such sensitive assignment?
The mélange of different, and some time competing, political, security and diplomatic entities in managing the Sahara affairs have been a major hindering to Rabat’s efforts to present a clear and concise “Moroccan solution” to the conflict. On several occasions, mishaps by personnel from the Ministry of Interior led to diplomatic fallouts that had to be “cleaned”  by unsuitable diplomats. In more than one occasion, sloppy and tactless diplomats compromised Morocco’s efforts. Such missteps continue to have disastrous impact on Morocco’s efforts to advance its “Local Autonomy Plan for the Worsen Sahara”.
Moroccan diplomatic blunders in the Western Sahara have been in the most part self-inflicted. As the Algerian diplomacy keeps struggling in light of its disastrous support for the late Libyan dictator Gaddafi and its current silence and tactical support of the bloody regime in Damascus, the Moroccan diplomats are incapable and inept to gain “significant support” of their positions on the Western Sahara. A change in the diplomatic style and a more centralized control and command approach is necessary if Morocco is to win a durable international recognition for its presence in its Southern Provinces.

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Comments (20)  

 
Morcelli
+1 #1 M6 doing an outstanding job int he Sahara — Morcelli 2012-06-06 03:21
Well Mr. Hassan I could not disagree with you more on this one. First of all Moroccan diplomats do not have any say on how the Sahara dossier should be run. The Sahara is in the hand of the king and the king has the ultimate decision because anything that goes wrong with the Sahara is a direct threat to the monarchy, Moroccans have been asked to sacrifice so much in order to recuperate and keep the Sahara. The Algerians know that in order to destabilize the monarchy, is to hit it where it will hurt. The king is the guarantor of Morocco's territorial integrity and anything that jeopardize this fact is direct threat to the livelihood of the palace. Moroccans will not accept that that their king play around with something that is considered sacred.

What this Ross has done or trying to do is to start twitching and switching things, he is going beyond what his mission is about. The superpowers are calling the Moroccan initiative serious and credible, Mr Ross is instead looking for who raises the Moroccan flag in the Sahara, who has certain Moroccan license plates, who spies on who, these are trivialities that Algeria uses to demoralize Morocco.

The King will have none of that and he courageously announced that he will no longer work with Ross just like when Algeria advised the polisario not to work with Van slam. fair and square.

You can bring the best diplomats on earth and the problem will never be solved unless Algeria decides that it is time to turn the page. It is not for the interest of the superpowers to force Morocco or Algeria one way or the other. China and Russia are with Algeria, France and the US are with Morocco, even though sometimes you don't know on which side the US are.

It would be naive to blame the Sahara problem on Moroccan diplomats when they are simple messengers, there is no one to blame here, We know who the enemy is and the Sahara is in Morocco and in Morocco it will stay.

When the Algerians switch to a democratically elected government and president and their boutef dies from his stomach cancer, then we might talk about solutions.
Moroccan diplomacy is reacting to what's going on on the ground, when they realized that Ross is trying to change the mission that was entrusted to him, they withdraw their confidence and I think this is the right and smart thing to do. The next envoy will never try to screw up with the mission. If the US and the UN still have confidence in Ross, that's their problem. The Envoy is American and i do not see how the Americans will say " Oh this American is is bad American". The US never goes themselves.

No one on earth can force Morocco to bow to the enemy next door and if the status quo is what it needs to happen right now, so be it.
Morocco's coffers are worth zero and Algeria's are worth billions, Morocco is doing a lot better than Algeria, so let's give prop to the Moroccans.
They might suck in many others areas, but in the Sahara dossier, they are champions if you ask me.
Keep in mind that if you open up in layoone, Morocco's enemy will take advantage of the situation and start mayhem to attract the international community to their "Misery" that they want to blame on Morocco and we all remember what they did last time Morocco decided to let them camp outside Layoone.

If the king would speed up the rationalization that he mentioned in his last speech that would be a plus. If he would implement the autonomy, a real autonomy that is, that would be another plus. The sahraouis will need to see something other than the ending lip service.
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Meknessi
0 #2 Agree — Meknessi 2012-06-06 09:02
I agree with this analysis. I hope somebody is listening??
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Toufik
0 #3 It is our kings fault — Toufik 2012-06-06 10:41
Nothing to do with diplomacy. Our kings made fatal mistakes:
1) Mohamed 5 refused the French offer of returning the eastern lands before Algeria's independence. Bad move.
2) Hassan 2 suggested or at least accepted the referendum in the OAU conference in (I think in Kenya / Ethiopia) . Even worse move.
3) Mohamed 6 is paying for his father and grand father mistakes.

The Algerian Generalismo made huge political and diplomatic capital out of our kings' mistakes. They ceased the moment and exploited it very well.
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Lalla Moulati
0 #4 stand up and be counted — Lalla Moulati 2012-06-06 11:45
Western diplomats are wondering how Mr. Ross, a respected veteran American diplomat and a former U.S. Ambassador, could be biased towards the position of the Polisario Front, a Marxist guerilla group backed by an undemocratic Military junta in Algeria?

Quote:
"Well first of all tell me, is there some society you know that doesn't run on greed? You think Russia doesn't run on greed? You think China doesn't run on greed? What is greed? Of course none of us are greedy. It's only the other fella that's greedy. The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests."
Milton Friedman

Quote:
"There's this beautiful play of words which we encounter almost daily: Socialism, communism, capitalism; there is no such thing but capitalism. There is state capitalism, which passes under the name of either socialism or communism; there is private or finance capitalism; there is people's or mutualized capitalism; to play with the words of socialism or communism is to do exactly what Lenin did in 1917."
Isaac Don Levine

I'm not making any accusations here, my point is only that your argument is a red herring.

For general interest:
thirdworldtraveler.com/.../...
algeria-watch.org/.../...
(point of interest, subtitle: "The Army’s Western-Backed War on the Algerian People")

Morocco isn't interested in speculation, or arguing semantics, but has every right to call a spade a spade. Bias or prejudice, it's all academic. It was an exceptionally bent report, surrounded by "insider" claims even alleging that it was tampered with. As Special Envoy, Mr Ross shoulders the responsibility; now I understand the game of diplomacy, and clearly Morocco upset the apple cart, but surely there's a limit to the extent to which we get taken for fools? In any respect, the crux of it is this, Morocco has lost all confidence in Mr Ross.

As a former ambassador to Algeria, Mr Ross should never have been made special envoy in the first place; an appointment one might rightly consider "injudicious and sloppy". It's as simple as that.
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riffi
0 #5 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Western sahara: Reshuffling Morocco’s Diplomatic Cadre — riffi 2012-06-06 13:04
Disagree with you,the ones who are in the corner are the polizbel and algeria.the latest news the head of the polizbel meskhout el walidine abdelaziz sent a letter to the king of saudia Arabia begging him to intervene. And in the other note we should think if morocco made this move is all with the blessing of uncle sam,Morocco will not do anything without Washington approval.with all the problems algeria have internally and around her borders is unbearable for her generals so the US and morocco said why not throwing another fire in the pit so the fire will stay longer , all this bullshit Ross this Ross that,it will not be surprising that was the game plan to scramble algeria and their generals and again with the blessing of uncle sam.the time is up and when it comes to push and shoving every one think for himself.
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Borsa
+1 #6 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Western sahara: Reshuffling Morocco’s Diplomatic Cadre — Borsa 2012-06-06 20:59
I disagree with you Hassan Masiky, Morocco made the right move by withdrawing confidence in Ross. The Polisario and their political masters Algeria know that as time goes on the options left to them will dwindle down to two: (1) Accept Morocco's autonomy plan or (2) Resort to violence.

Morocco's strategy of containment which is best illustrated by the building of the wall has been incredibly successful and a master stroke of defence ingenuity.
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morcelli
+1 #7 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Western sahara: Reshuffling Morocco’s Diplomatic Cadre — morcelli 2012-06-06 23:05
Who knows what will Ross come up with in the next security council next year, He gave the Moroccans a hint that he is about to reverse the mission upside down blaming everything bad on Morocco and not mentioning that Tindouf is camp where no sahraoui can escape, never mention the Algerian no allowing the census to take place and above all never mentioning the protests that too place inside the camps. Morocco is not about to please the US or the UN, they stood firm and fired his ass. This is veeeeeeerrrrrry smart move by the Moroccans.
We can't always blame ourselves when things are not working well, why blame the Moroccan diplomats. EVERYONE needs to understand that we facing a relentless evil for the last 38 years who is trying to overthrow the monarchy. The Algerians goal is not the Sahara , their goal is to see a system of government that is similar to theirs and that is the reason they supported qaddafi and now they are secretly supporting Bashar of Syria.
These are facts, this is not something I am saying to get back at the Algerians.

I challenge anyone to tell us something Morocco is pursuing to hurt Algeria
. We have been placed on the defense for the last 4 decades and we have never tried to do anything bad to Algeria when they are doing just that on a daily basis.

Morocco needs the support of its people not unwarranted critics as Mr. Hassan (who I respect for keeping MB busy with his articles) is doing.

On this one I think Morocco stole the show from the Algerians and kudos to M6 for this courageous decision. Now he just need to fire the elites ( ok i am getting greedy now :-) )
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S Hassi
+1 #8 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Western sahara: Reshuffling Morocco’s Diplomatic Cadre — S Hassi 2012-06-07 02:50
Morocco now is a prisoner of Hassan II stupid past policies ( like all dictators , nothing but troubles ). I dont see Spain negotiating the Basque country with Eta or Algerian doing the same thing with the Tuareg & les Qabell only Morocco the village idiot is always letting some past crooks to decide his future. At last Morocco has done the right thing, so keep the good work guys and enough of this negotiations. 95% of the Sahrawis dont speak Arabic they speak Hassani ( Amazigh dialect ) so The rightfull place for the ARAB sahrawi republic is Arabia not North Africa, so please Mr Polizibal take your camels and your tents and head back east . That is all folks.
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morcelli
+1 #9 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Western sahara: Reshuffling Morocco’s Diplomatic Cadre — morcelli 2012-06-07 10:47
By the way you know whose diplomacy is in disarray? the Algerians. They advised the Polisario to seek an intervention from Saudi Arabia to settle the conflict. The Algerians think that by involving the Saudis, it will give the matter a more visible stage. The Algerians know very well that the kingdom of Saudi of Arabia and Morocco are staunch allies. As a matter of fact, the Saudis financed many of our weaponry and military needs.
The Saudis of course will not entertain the rubbish coming out of Algeria, by way of Tindof.
This shows clearly that Morocco's refusal to deal with Ross, the new French president support of Morocco, and Spain's new government new found neutrality ( they have the 25% unemployment to deal with instead of supporting some thugs made in Algeria) threw Algeria's calculations in limbo.
They want diplomacy, we'll give them diplomacy. Everyone needs to understand that we are fighting a horrible evil next door, an evil who says that it has nothing to do with the Polisario and they simply want to see international law prevail. They are fooling no one but their own.
We are fighting cowards hiding behind the polisario, they say they have a neef (pride), is this what we call neef in Morocco?
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Another Algerian
-2 #10 Getting better all the time — Another Algerian 2012-06-08 00:42
To complete Mr. Masiky's analysis, I would say that even the Autonomy Plan presented by Morocco as the solution and advocated by its supporters as such is confronted by the sheer reality: the Moroccans' only know-how in terms of colonisation is repression, the will to over-control the Sahrawis, and all means are allowed, even spying on UN diplomats. This is the underlying failure that Ross' Report pointed out and it took a little while for the Moroccans to understand its real impact. Mr. Masiky is paraphrasing this failure when he writes Quote:
However, silence in the halls of the Moroccan Foreign Ministry could be a sign that the Moroccan diplomacy may lack a plan on how to proceed under these new circumstances.
.
Morcelli en chien de garde understood the impact as well but instead of seeking a solution to his country's shortcomings, he blames the author for undermining Morocco's moral:-)All his interventions show one thing, this conflict serves one central purpose for the Makhzen: create an exterior enemy to maintain the country together.
In my view this is a big mistake for several reasons, first a country can never reach stability betting on the outcome of a conflict, second you can never curb people's will fighting for their freedom, third I think Morocco cannot escape a real Arabian spring, 20 Fevrier movement pointed at the right direction -nothing will change in Morocco until the royalty is reformed, here is Morocco's real problem, it is not Western Sahara neither Algeria.
I say one thing get things sorted out at home, Algeria will not humiliate you, we have a future to build Noether.
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Algerian
0 #11 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Western sahara: Reshuffling Morocco’s Diplomatic Cadre — Algerian 2012-06-08 01:04
The W. Sahara has always been a UN issue, or according to the UN its called, The Decolonisation Process in Western Sahara.
To read some of the Moroccan posters, one would think that The Western Sahara is recognized by the whole international community to be part of the Kingdom of Morocco, except for Algeria.
Wake up people, not a single country in the world recognized your sovereignty over the territory.
Instead of spreading lies and insulting other nations, why don't' you guys talk about facts.
-Why Morocco did not try to liberate the territory, when it was under Spanish RULE?
- If the Sahara is such an integral part of Morocco why you gave half of it to Mauritania?
- If its such an indivisible part of your country why is it that your late king agreed to a cease fire that stipulated that independence would be an option in the referendum?

You guys can blame ross all day long, but at the end of the day referendum is the only option.
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Algerian
-1 #12 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Western sahara: Reshuffling Morocco’s Diplomatic Cadre — Algerian 2012-06-08 02:16
@ Hassi

The Sahrawi People don't speak "Hassani" they speak " Hassanya" because the people are called Hassani, ( beni hassan tribe, that immigrated to the W.S. and Mauritania from Yemen)
They are mostly Arabs except for some Zwaya, that have some amazigh connections and they are very fluent in classical arabic.
Before claiming the W.S to be Moroccan you should do some research about the people that actually live there.
For example to say how are you doing...etc, you would say "Nta chtari fik, Yak labaas? yak Kheir? yaak mayoujhaak chi?"
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Lalla Moulati
+1 #13 Wouldn't waste my breath — Lalla Moulati 2012-06-08 03:10
Don't blame us for your ignorance Algerians. I would love to educate you on the matter, but your prejudice has already blinded you.
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Morcelli
0 #14 COMMENT_TITLE_R E Western sahara: Reshuffling Morocco’s Diplomatic Cadre — Morcelli 2012-06-08 03:56
What these dummies don't understand is that Moroccans led by their king will never relent. They think that some dude called Ross or some thug called abdelaziz or some stomach cancer stricken midget will be able to shake the will of the King to defend Moroccan territorial integrity by all means necessary. They keep pointing at what Ross,Castro, chavez, ahmadinajed, and Zuma have said. They do not understand that Morocco will never even give up a milli-inch of the sahara.

The cowards who are shamelessly hiding behind the polisario claiming they have neef, don't have the guts to face Morocco face to face, instead they are using money that should be spent on poor Algerians who day and night riot for bread and sugar prices to feed their puppets to be a pain in the butt for Morocco. Morocco stood up firm for 40 years and we do not mind standing another 400 years. What makes these Pseudo-proud think that Morocco will budge on something sacred to every Moroccan? I just don't understand it.

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meknessi
0 #15 why get mad when it is the truth — meknessi 2012-06-08 06:38
I think this article speaks the truth about state of affair of moroccan diplomacy in un. Mercelli what do u think morocco is doing next? Did morocco thaught about this before attackong ross?
This has nothing to with algeria.it is poor moroccAn doplomacy.perio d...
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meknessi
0 #16 why get mad when it is the truth — meknessi 2012-06-08 06:41
I think this article speaks the truth about state of affair of moroccan diplomacy in un. Mercelli what do u think morocco is doing next? Did morocco thaught about this before attackong ross?
This has nothing to with algeria.it is poor moroccAn doplomacy.perio d...
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S Hassi
0 #17 @ Algerian — S Hassi 2012-06-08 07:26
You just proved my point , your polizibal came from Yemen , i am only demanding please go back to your land Yemen , you are not welcome here , take your donkeys and your camels and off you go , ARAB sand democtatic islamic marxis sahrawi republic what a joke ,the so called brothers of Algeria are hoping to in circle Morocco from the east and south and this is their main reason for supporting the Polizibal . Morocco should never let a car salesman ( Ross ) to decide his future . To hell with your oil money Algerian , i am NOT and dont wish to be your brother , period .
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S Hassi
+1 #18 @ Algerian — S Hassi 2012-06-08 07:32
You just proved my point , your Polizibal came from Yemen , i am only demanding that please go back to your land Arabia , you are not welcome here , just take your donkeys & camels and off you go , we know what you planning for , you hoping to in circle Morocco from the east and south , this is your main reason for supporting Polizibal . I blame Hassan II for putting Morocco in this the situation , he should have gone all the way to tinduf and finished it there . Morocco should never let a car salesman Ross decides his future . to hell with your oil money Mr Algerian
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Othman
0 #19 Agadir — Othman 2012-06-08 08:59
I will return shortly to voice my opinion; however, I would like to ask certain folks to abide by the rules of conversation. This is a forum and there is no need to make it personal, I can see certain people type just for the sake of typing and at the same token i see others that actually say things that make sense. If we are not on the same page we can than mutually agree to disagree. Just a thought!
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MOH
-1 #20 RE: Western sahara: Reshuffling Morocco’s Diplomatic Cadre — MOH 2012-07-02 12:52
sahrawi arab democratic republic
if polisario want they owns country ,have half of algeria
morrocco is berber and has to be prozionist and prowestern,for our interests.we have no link to saudi arabia or the arabs there.long live israel ,usa and bring back the berber empire
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