I told Boumediene we were not ready for a war against Morocco

I belong to a generation that staunchly believes in the union of the Maghreban people, a generation that considers that the bonds between those people are stronger than their dissentions, but the plots of the colonials and the greediness of some politicians undermined this ambitious project.

• We have never forgotten that our Tunisian and Moroccan brothers sheltered our troops during the war and they fought by our side against the French colonial, many have died for the Algerian independence.
• The problem of the borders surfaced well before the independence. The Moroccan king Hassen II pressured the Algerian temporary government over the referendum in the province of Tindouf , south west Algeria, that he pretended was a Moroccan property.
• Similarly for the eastern borders as the Tunisian president Bourguiba was hinting to annex provinces in the east as the independence was approaching. As a commander of the second military district I was suspicious about the real drives of the Moroccan king and put my troops under high alert.
• Everybody still bears in mind that Morocco tried to annex large swaths of the Algerian territory at a moment where Algeria was exhausted by seven years of war. We were stabbed in the back by our Moroccan brothers.
• I was in an official visit to China when the Moroccan troops made an incursion in the region of Hassi Beidha in October 15, 1963 and erected barracks there. I tried to convince the Chinese officials to return but they insisted on my stay till the end.
• Upon our return, the so called” sands war” was over and the Moroccan troops chased by the Algerian people that stood as one to retrieve the integrity of their territory. I have to acknowledge the tremendous roles played by the African Union, Fidel Castro and Djamel Abdenacer in this crisis.
• I would like to pay tribute to Mohand Oulhadj who tamed the rebellion in Kabylie region and joined his forces to the governmental troops to stand against the Moroccan invader. Moreover, I have to point at the courage of the Moroccan leader Mahdi Ben Barka who was the unique Moroccan figure that denounced the imperialistic ideas of the Moroccan king. He paid a high price for his bravery as he was sentenced to death in absentia and assassinated in October 1965.
• The lesson we learnt from this conflict, is that the Moroccan king has never given up his expansionist vision and he doesn’t acknowledge the borders inherited from the colonial era and recognized by the African Union charter. The Moroccan parties shared the same view as their king over the issue especially “ El Istiklal” party led by Aallal El Fasi who was dreaming of the” Great Maghreb” that included parts from the west and south west Algeria, Mauritania until Senegal river.
• Boumediene has always considered the Moroccan king Hassen II an impediment to the creation of the Maghreb Union, but after the two summits that took place in Ifran, 1969, and Tlemcen 1971, he conducted a programmatic policy based on mutual respect and good governance between the two countries. He refused to assist the Moroccan opposition that was plotting to topple the kingdom.
• But Morocco and Mauritania were plotting secretly to annex the Western Sahara territories. Both Hassen II and Mokhtar Oueld Dadda signed an agreement in 1974 to annex the north for Morocco and the south for Mauritania.
• The move was seen as a stab in the back by Houari Boumedienne who gave firm instructions to help the Mauritanian opposition in order to topple Oueld Dadda. He was ousted in July 1978.