The French diplomat and former French ambassador to Algeria, Xavier Driencourt, estimated that France’s support for Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara amounted to an awareness that any rapprochement between Paris and Rabat required a frank and clear measure. on the Sahara issue. In terms of Franco-Algerian relations, he deplored France’s silence on human rights issues.
Returning in a television interview to the relations between Morocco and France in recent months, in particular the cold crisis between the two countries then the rapprochement in small steps before the recognition of the Moroccan Sahara, Xavier Driencourt, affirmed that the new French positioning was motivated by several reasons.
While French foreign policy has always sought to maintain a certain balance between Morocco and Algeria, the bias of President Emmanuel Macron, from the start of his first mandate, and to try to create the conditions for a Franco reconciliation -Algerian, had hurt relations between Rabat and Paris.
According to Xavier Driencourt, the French president’s awareness of the impossibility of achieving the expected goal and in the face of the impasse with Algeria, was one of the main reasons influencing the French change of course.
France would have understood that nothing should be expected from Algeria, despite the detours and approaches that Paris has made towards this country, said the diplomat, stressing that there was no response in return.
Nevertheless, the main and fundamental reason for French support for Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara is inherent in the relationship between the two partners. Thus, the diplomat recalls Moroccan diplomatic efforts as well as France’s understanding that any rapprochement with the Kingdom would only be achieved through a position commensurate with that of the United States and Spain, and in in this case, the recognition that the Sahara is Moroccan.
On the aspect of relations between Algeria and Morocco and their link with the Sahara, Xavier Driencourt, recalled a historical fact that Algiers “forgets” while Morocco “does not forget” it. This is the agreement signed on July 6, 1961 between the late Hassan II and Ferhat Abbas, president of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic, reflecting Algeria’s commitment to modify the borders inherited by French colonization and return the Moroccan lands plundered after the independence of Algeria
The former French ambassador to Algeria also criticized the general situation in Algeria, particularly with regard to human rights and freedom of expression, saying that “the record of human rights in Algeria during the era of Abdelmadjid Tebboune is ‘very negative’ because freedoms are restricted and journalists are imprisoned.”
He estimated that even at the time of Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s presidency, there was space for freedom of expression in the media. This space has shrunk considerably at present, he noted, regretting France’s silence.
France must interact with this situation and with the need for political opening in Algeria, as it does with China, Hong Kong and Russia, said the diplomat who was French ambassador to Algeria twice, affirming that we must not turn a blind eye to what the Algerian people are experiencing.
On the diplomatic level, Driencourt indicated that currently Algeria lives under the influence of diplomatic isolation in its environment due to its successive crises with Morocco, Mali and with General Haftar in Libya, and the the absence of a clear vision of the Algerian regime in matters of foreign policy.
In this sense, he recalled the difference between the roles that Algeria played in the past, before the black decade, as a mediator between Iran and the United States, the number of African conferences hosted and the lack of current credibility. “Today no one goes to this country. Iranian and Venezuelan officials are the only ones doing this”he said.
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