Morocco must show it is worthy of a place on Security Council

AFRICA should not allow Morocco to ascend to the African Peace and Security Council seat until it pulls out of Western Sahara, allows the people of Western Sahara independence and abides by the UN and AU resolutions hanging over its head.

The Peace and Security Council is an AU organ. It is responsible for the implementation of the decisions of the union and has 15 national members, five of which are elected for three years alongside 10 elected for two years.

By allowing Morocco a seat on Africa’s Peace and Security Council, it makes a mockery of our institutions and renders the AU a joke to the world. Why can’t Morocco do the right thing if it wants to play a meaningful role in Africa? If things like this are allowed to happen, no one will ever take us seriously as a people and a continent.

Africa should show the world that it won’t tolerate nonsense when it comes to issues such as its peace and security which it regards as sacrosanct. How dare a client state of Zionism and imperialism like Morocco even be considered? It should not have been nominated in the first place.

Countries like Morocco should be isolated and not be brought into the limelight until they repent of their belief in Zionism and apartheid which they are practising in broad daylight in Western Sahara. All this should be blamed on the Francophone Mafia at the helm of the AU Commission in

Addis Ababa.

Since the appointment of this Mafia, we have witnessed betrayal of the highest order at the AU Commission. First, it was the admittance of Morocco to the AU, the opening of our continent to Africom, and now the so-called normalisation with the Zionist Israel entity by certain African countries.

Those who support Zionist/apartheid Israeli occupation of Palestine are guilty of crimes against humanity. They, therefore, don’t deserve a seat in the African Peace and Security Council. Morocco is one of the countries that does exactly that and we, therefore, do not want it near that important organ in the AU.

Libya has dropped its candidacy for the AU Peace and Security Council seat for the 2022 to 2025 period, in support of Morocco’s bid for the post.

The decision was announced by Libya’s foreign minister Najla Al-mangoush during her telephone conversation with Moroccan peer Nasser Bourita last weekend.

It is clear how securing economic opportunities in West Africa, strengthening ties in the region and striking key deals relate to Morocco’s strategic interests, namely regional hegemony in North Africa-sahel (pitting it against Algeria, which vies for the same role), and securing support for its claim on Western Sahara.

What is not straightforward is why Morocco would rejoin a continental organisation that considers Western Sahara “Africa’s last colony” and recognises the right to self-determination of the Western Saharan people.

Morocco’s economic engagement with Africa and its membership of the AU are two interrelated strategies deployed to achieve its new policy towards Africa. Under King Hassan II, Morocco is shifting from its approach of forging economic partnership on an ad hoc basis, with the aim of getting support for its interests in Western Sahara, to a more coherent foreign policy, under King Mohammed VI, anchored on three mutually reinforcing objectives: positioning Morocco as

Europe's gateway to Africa, establishing itself as a continental economic power and deepening its hold on Western Sahara.

All the strategies used by Morocco on Francophone West African countries – with the help of France, the former colonial power – can only have a short success life span. In fact, it is built at the top and does not represent the people at the grass roots in those countries.

It is also true that many of the leaders have been bribed by the French/ Moroccan axis to implement the decisions from France on behalf of Morocco. France exercises a stranglehold on all its former colonies, and they must be seen to be complying or else risk destabilisation.

We call on African countries to deny Morocco a chance to be re-elected on the important organ of the AU. They must all call on Morocco to comply with the UN and AU resolutions hanging over its head and grant Western Sahara its independence before considering serving on the organ.