New Moroccan Provocation… The “Makhzen” Is Playing With Fire !

A vow of a new Moroccan escalation, and the reason is another provocation by the ”Makhzen”, in addition to the provocation of the continued construction of the military base in the “Jaradah” region near the Algerian border, which Algeria demanded to stop its construction.

The Moroccan side presented new justifications for the continued construction of the “Jaradah base”, as reported by the “Moroccan Armed Forces Forum”, known for its proximity to the Royal Army (Farmarmoc), which published satellite images of sites of alleged Algerian military installations near the Moroccan border and this contingency constitutes a serious provocation, given the sensitivity of such reckless action.

The forum issued exclusive photos taken by satellite, which it claimed were for Algerian military installations, and circulated it through its account on the social network, Facebook, for conveyance to Moroccan media outlets.

It is known that the controversy over the Jaradah base dates back to last May, after the Moroccan Prime Minister, Saad Eddine El Othmani, signed the decree to build that base, and Algeria was quick to alert the Moroccan authorities of the dangers of what it was doing, and called on it to stop building the base, arguing that this move is spawned with sensitivity and could have adverse repercussions on bilateral relations.

The Moroccan side did not respond to the Algerian demands, and it indicated that the construction of this military base is intended to house soldiers, and said that it is part of the main efforts that Morocco has made since 2014 to increase the protection of its land borders with Algeria, and has even acknowledged building a 150-km wall on the border between Saidia and Al Jaradah.

In the face of Moroccan intransigence and doggedness, the Algerian side decided to build a military base opposite the Moroccan military base, in the context of reciprocity.

Since that time the verbal sparring between the two countries has not stopped, and the crisis of the former Moroccan consul to Oran increased, the crisis escalated, but it was finally closed by replacing the Moroccan ambassador, Hassan Abdel-Khaleq, with a new diplomat, Mohamed Ait Wali, while the military base crisis remained in place.

The last statement by the Algerian side in this regard came in the words of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in his recent interview with the French newspaper “L’Opinion”, in which he called on Morocco to immediately halt this military facility, as it constitutes an “escalation” that threatens Algerian-Moroccan relations.

The significance behind the publication of the “Moroccan Armed Forces Forum” of these photos indicates that the Moroccan side is determined to continue the policy of “brinkmanship”, and those pictures taken from space are nothing but a justification for continuing to build this military facility.

Also, circulating these images, which are alleged to be Algerian military installations, to the media, and before that taking them, is considered a serious transgression that would lead to an unprecedented escalation in the chronic crisis between the two neighboring countries, because the matter concerns military installations that are supposed to be completely confidential, not especially since the circulation of these photos came from a party considered an adversary, while Algeria, when it moved against the creation of the Moroccan military base, came after the Moroccan government initiated the decree to establish that controversial base.