Rabat – High-ranking Algerian figures have continued to use hostile rhetoric against Morocco, accusing the North African country of several offenses as tensions remain high between the two neighbors.
Salah Goudjil, President of Algeria’s Council of the Nation, recently went back to the time of his country’s independence, accusing Morocco of trying to exploit the divisions that emerged among the Algerian revolution’s leaders back then.
State-owned Radio Algerienne said that Goudjil said Morocco was “counting on the disagreements between the revolution’s leaders who resisted Morocco’s expansionist greed.”
He also said that Morocco had attacked Algeria during a time in which the latter “had not yet recovered from its wounds.”
Morocco and Algeria fought a brief four-month war in 1963, commonly known as the Sand War, which revolved around a border dispute.
Additionally, Goudjil addressed Morocco’s relations with Israel, saying that the two countries’ increasingly warming ties pose “a direct threat to Algeria, and not just to the Palestinian question.”
Morocco re-established diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020.
Yet Rabat has remained steadfast in its support for the Palestinian cause, maintaining its position that the Israel-Palestine conflict must be solved with a two-state solution. Most recently, Morocco has repeatedly denounced Israeli troop’s various violations in Palestinian territories, advocating for the respect of Palestinians’ rights.
Senior politicians are not the only promoters of anti-Morocco rhetoric in Algeria, with the military leadership having appeared through the years to be the main source of Algeria’s obsession with Morocco.
Said Chengriha, the Algerian army’s chief of staff, also recently accused Morocco of flooding his country with drugs.
During a visit to Bechar, a military region near the Moroccan border, Chengriha warned against “despicable attempts to flood Algeria with drugs,” implying that Morocco was the source in an attempt to undermine the country’s authority.
Since Algeria’s unilateral decision to cut ties with Morocco in summer 2021, tensions between the two neighbors have remained high.
That decision came on the heels of decades of tensions around the Western Sahara dispute as the Algerian-backed separatist Polisario Front continued to challenge Morocco’s territorial integrity.
Despite invitations from Morocco for a dialogue to resolve the tensions, including offers to send firefighting planes to help control wildfires that ravaged Algeria in August 2021, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune instead chose to continue escalating the tensions, even hinting at a “direct confrontation” earlier this year.
Source : MoroccoWorldNews
