In a act revealing nervousness who reigns within the Algerian power, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, front president under the boot of the military junta, brutally dismissed last Tuesday, the Algerian Ambassador to Mauritania, Mohamed Benattou. After three years of service, the man who represented Algiers in Nouakchott was unceremoniously dismissed, replaced by Amin Said, a diplomat little known to the general public.
This brutal decision comes barely a week after the historic visit of the Mauritanian President, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, to Rabat, where he met King Mohammed VI. An interview which, according to analysts, marks a decisive step towards a strengthened Strategic Partnership between Mauritania and Morocco. Observers see it as a strong signal of diplomatic and economic convergence in a region where Algeria is struggling to maintain its influence.
A warning shot for the Algerian junta:
This sudden eviction reveals a real panic at the top of the Algerian state. For decades, the military junta has deployed a strategy of obstruction against any form of rapprochement between Rabat and Nouakchott. However, this new diplomatic momentum between Morocco and Mauritania undermines years of efforts made by Algiers to divide its neighbors. Benattou’s dismissal constitutes an admission of weakness by Algeria, following the loss of a major diplomatic battle against Morocco.
Algerian military officials, concerned by the impact of this rapprochement on the question of the Moroccan Sahara, fear a new regional situation which would further isolate Algeria. It’s no secret: Algiers has based its entire foreign policy on frontal opposition to Morocco’s sovereignty over its Saharan provinces. The possibility of a stable and prosperous Mauritanian-Moroccan front directly endangers Algerian maneuvers in the region.
The fall of Algerian influence
It is becoming clear that Algerian diplomacy is crumbling under the weight of successive failures. Unable to compete with Moroccan dynamics, particularly in the areas of investment and regional integration, Algiers is resorting to desperate measures to mask its weaknesses. Mauritania, aware of Algeria’s inaction, today prefers to focus on concrete cooperation with Rabat, looking to the future.
El Ghazouani’s visit to Rabat is seen as a scathing response to Algerian provocations and a significant step towards lasting economic integration between Morocco and Mauritania. This is evidenced by the signing in Abu-Dhabi in the presence of the President of the United Arab Emirates of multiple bilateral agreements covering strategic sectors, ranging from energy to security.
The erosion of Algeria’s control over Mauritania:
The hegemonic ambitions of the Algerian military junta today come up against a Mauritania which asserts its autonomy and strengthens its links with Rabat. The Algerian regime, mired in internal struggles and growing unpopularity, seems incapable of containing this regional dynamic which is accelerating to the benefit of Morocco.
The dismissal of Mohamed Benattou is part of a series of evictions which testify to the chronic instability of Algerian foreign policy. This gesture, far from being a simple diplomatic change, reveals a loss of bearings which is only accentuated in the face of Morocco’s rise to power on the regional scene. The panic that is driving the Algerian military junta is a reflection of an unavoidable reality: the future of the Maghreb is being written today with Rabat, and not with Algiers.
Abderrazzak Boussaid/Le7tv
