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Battered by scandals and diplomatic setbacks at the international level and a major socio-economic crisis at home, Morocco is reaping the fruits of its policies based on deceit, disloyalty and haste.
RABAT – APS.dz.- The resignation in recent days of the so-called Wafa Beraichi, head of an administrative unit of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), for colluding with Moroccan intelligence services, is a serious act. It is a precedent that will weigh heavily on the shoulders of all the kingdom’s officials working in international institutions.
Wafa Beraichi has been the subject of internal disciplinary proceedings for an act of espionage related to the Pegasus affair. The scandal comes at a time when the European Commission of Inquiry into Spyware is calling for an immediate moratorium on the use of spyware. The call follows the European Parliament’s interim report, which made new revelations about the names of the victims of the spying operation, including Pedro Sánchez, the head of the Spanish government, and his defence and interior ministers.
On the issue of Western Sahara, Morocco, which thought it had closed the deal of the century by referring to a message written by former US President Donald Trump on a social network, was awakened by the force of events, with the hangover of someone who has taken his wishes for realities. On 10 December 2020, Trump announced on Twitter that Morocco was committed to normalising diplomatic relations with the Zionist entity, in exchange for which Washington would support the sinister “autonomy plan” for Western Sahara presented by Rabat.
The Makhzen believed that this position was enough to force Western states and international institutions to follow in Donald Trump’s footsteps. But the ways of diplomacy are too serious to settle for a simple humorous message on a social network, and Morocco will learn this the hard way.
Thus, on 14 October, the UN Fourth Committee on Special Political Affairs and Decolonisation adopted a resolution, without a vote, reaffirming the legal framework of the Western Sahara conflict as a matter of decolonisation and the responsibility of the United Nations towards the Sahrawi people.
On the same issue, on 9 November, representatives of several countries in the UN Human Rights Council, including South Africa, Luxembourg, Norway, East Timor and Ireland, denounced Morocco’s illegal occupation of Western Sahara during its Universal Periodic Review.
These representatives called for the organisation of a referendum of self-determination in this non-self-governing territory, while questioning Morocco on the need to “urgently facilitate access to Western Sahara for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and to respect the human rights of the Saharawis, including their right to self-determination”.
Also in Geneva, a coalition of lawyers and NGOs has just presented six new complaints against Morocco to the UN Committee against Torture, demanding in particular the release of all Sahrawi prisoners sentenced on the basis of confessions obtained under torture.
Furthermore, Austrian parliamentarians called on the European Commission and the Council of Europe to respect the rulings of the European Court of Justice, which considers null and void any economic or commercial agreement between the European bloc and Morocco which includes Western Sahara.
Even at the continental level, Morocco received a slap in the face from the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which issued a ruling in September urging all member states of the African Union (AU) to find a permanent solution to Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara and to guarantee the Sahrawi people the exercise of their right to self-determination.
It underlined that Morocco’s continued occupation of Western Sahara is “incompatible” with the right to self-determination of the Sahrawi people, enshrined in Article 20 of the AU Charter, and constitutes a “violation” of this right, warning that Morocco’s admission “is likely to be challenged as incompatible with the Constitutive Act of the AU”.
Makhzen is suffering internal unrest caused by an acute socio-economic crisis. On Sunday, the Democratic Labour Confederation organised demonstrations in several regions of the kingdom under the slogan: “Day of the Confederation’s anger against the Akhannouch government”.
With this action, the union denounces, as it points out in its statement, the inaction of the Moroccan government in the face of rising prices and the deterioration in the purchasing power of large sections of society.
In the education sector, the situation is even more complicated. Faced with Makhzen’s inability to satisfy the demands of the workers to improve their socio-economic conditions, the Moroccan Federation of Education Sector Employees has decided to draw up a programme of struggle consisting of the organisation of several actions, including a sit-in on Tuesday outside the Ministry of Education headquarters, as well as rallies in front of regional academies on 29 November throughout the country.
In addition, other sectors, such as the transport sector, have called general strikes to denounce the rise in the price of hydrocarbons, which has reached unprecedented levels, leading to the closure of several companies.
*Makhzen designation of the Moroccan “Deep State” and referring to deep forces within the state…