The former French ambassador to the UN, Gérard Araud, commented on the Moroccan Sahara issue and the relations between France and Morocco, accusing the kingdom of doing a “habitual blackmail” after the American recognition of the Moroccanness of the Sahara. .
On Twitter, the former French ambassador to the United Nations (2009-2014), commented on the situation of tense relations between the two countries.
According to him, Morocco is accustomed to blackmail following what he described as an “American volte-face” on the Sahara.
“Basically, it is the usual Moroccan blackmail on Western Sahara following the American volte-face when, for decades, France was alone in defending Moroccan interests in the Security Council”, a- he wrote in a “repost” of a tweet alarmed at the absence of a new Moroccan ambassador in Paris.
This tweet comes as it has been 4 months since the former Moroccan ambassador to France, Mohamed Benchaaboun, was appointed general manager of the Mohammed VI Investment Fund, without anyone being named in his place.
Responding to questions from his followers in the comments following his tweet, the French diplomat added that he would have “spent nights defending Morocco in the Security Council on behalf of France, including against the United States”, under -hearing that the United States, before Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara, was against the kingdom and its supreme interests.
He continued in response to a question about the use of the phrase “American volte-face” that the United States has “fought Morocco on this subject in the Security Council for decades in the face of Morocco’s friendly France. and that they have “changed position 180 degrees” under the presidency of Donald Trump.
The diplomat was France’s representative to the United Nations, and to the Security Council, the executive body of the United Nations and where France has a permanent seat and veto power.
An Internet user asked Gérard Araud why France did not recognize the Moroccanness of the Sahara if it defended Morocco on this issue, while asking the question of whether this was due to a “fear of Algeria”.
The diplomat evaded the first question, and answered the second, stating: “I don’t think 150 countries in the world are afraid of Algeria. They respect the resolutions of the Security Council. »
Moroccans reframe the French diplomat
Gérard Araud’s answers did not convince Internet users who pointed out that France was only defending its own interests, and that it wanted to give itself the best role when in reality it is France who is at the origin of this evil.
Internet users thus reminded him of the theft of Moroccan lands in the Eastern Sahara by France to integrate them into Algeria.
Some have gone further by believing that it was France that was blackmailing Morocco before the recognition of the United States in exchange for juicy contracts and believing that now France has lost its elements of pressure.
“There is no free defense in geopolitics, you had counterparts that you no longer have,” said a subscriber. Other commentators have added that France defends the “status quo” in the Sahara issue, and that its interest is not to see this problem resolved any time soon, by questioning it on the countries which really support Morocco in this case.
Internet users have not failed to remind the diplomat that they do not have a short memory. And in response to his sentence “I don’t see how my country is concerned”, Internet users reminded him of Operation Swab of February 10, 1958, when Morocco was just independent of French colonization.
Two years after Morocco’s independence, the Moroccan Liberation Army in the Sahara felt that all of Morocco had to be liberated from colonization, including that of Spain. But France and Spain plotted and allied to suppress the Liberation Army in the Sahara.
For this operation, France attacked by ground and air, mobilizing 5,000 men, 600 vehicles and 70 aircraft in logistical support to the 9,000 Spanish soldiers.