Moroccan King Appoints New Ambassadors To Face Up to Algeria and to Control Polisario Front

During the Council of Ministers that he chaired on Sunday at Casablanca’s Royal Palace, King Mohammed VI appointed thirteen new ambassadors of Morocco to different countries and organizations, including Cuba, Mauritania and the African Union in a bid to revive the flagging Moroccan diplomatic initiative so as to counter the telling successes of Western Sahara’s Polisario Front on both the regional and international scenes.

The appointment of new ambassadors comes in accordance with Article N° 49 of the constitution and by recommendation of the Head of Government and initiative from the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

According to the official Moroccan statement, it is Hamid Chebar, who will represent Morocco in Mauritania.

He will succeed to the late Abderrahmane Ben Omar, who remained for several years dean of the diplomatic corps in Mauritania, and died while still occupying this post.

Other ambassadors have been nominated notably in Saudi Arabia, Spain, China, Canada, Portugal, Ukraine, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Guinea and Cuba.

Two other appointments also took place during this Moroccan council of ministers: an ambassador, permanent representative of Morocco to the UN office and international organizations in Geneva and an ambassador, permanent representative of the kingdom to the African Union.

The appointment of a new ambassador to Cuba comes a few months after Morocco and Cuba decided to re-establish their diplomatic ties 37 years after Morocco decided to sever its ties with the Caribbean country over Cuba’s steadfast support for the Polisario Front and the for independence of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.

Political analysts surmise that through its new Ambassador to the United Nations Office at Geneva, the Moroccan Makhzen will seek to obfuscate its horrific human rights violations in the occupied Saharawi cities, the heavy damage meted out to the Gdim Ezik detainees, and international reports of wanton repression against defenseless Saharawis inflicted by the Moroccan security and gendarmerie forces.

On the African continent, where Morocco recently joined the structures of the African Union, it was unable to coax Africans into its “colonial proposal” over the Western Sahara issue, after the Pan African body expressed a clear and consistent vision, stating that the Western Sahara file is a clear-cut decolonization issue.