Moroccan Ambassador in Mali Accuses Algeria Of Obstructing His Country's Interests

A diplomatic document issued by the Moroccan Ambassador in Mali’s capital Bamako, recently leaked to the “Morocco Leaks” website, highlighted Rabat’s fears about the Algerian presence in Mali and a group of African countries.

In his correspondence dated June 18, 2014, the Moroccan Ambassador, Hassan Naciri, then explicitly accused the Algerian authorities of “placing administrative and even judicial hurdles to the success of Moroccan investments in Mali”, as he put it.

 For example, he cited the World Bank case for Mali where the subsidiary of the Moroccan “Commercial Bank Wafa”, has been embroiled in bitter differences between the local workers and the main management of the bank in Morocco, and in this context, the diplomatic document claims that “the Algerian lobby is behind these differences.”

This document, which is a letter addressed to the Moroccan Foreign Ministry, speaks of the difficulties and obstacles faced by Moroccan investors in the Republic of Mali. 

According to the document attributed to the Moroccan Ambassador, “The Algerian lobby is behind the fabrication of these difficulties and obstacles?!” it alleged.

In another context, Moroccan media sources revealed that it was decided to terminate the functions of the Moroccan Ambassador at the level of the European Union, and that the position is vacant pending the appointment of a new Ambassador by King Mohamed VI.

The speedy termination of the functions of the Moroccan diplomat seems to be due mainly to the recent diplomatic setbacks sustained by the Rabat authorities in the Western Sahara issue.

To this effect and by the end of last February, the European Court of Justice ruled that the EU-Morocco fisheries agreement was not applicable to the waters of the Western Sahara region.

This legal decision by the European Court on the current fisheries agreement concluded by the EU with Morocco,   underlined that such an accord contravened international law, especially with regard to the principle of self-determination. 

The European Court’s ruling clearly stated, in this connection, that the territorial waters of Western Sahara did not belong to Morocco.