Morocco MP: Algeria is disintegrating

Morocco relies on the collapse of power in Algeria, according to the head of the Moroccan Party of Authenticity and Modernity (PAM) that is closely affiliated to the royal palace of King Mohammed VI.

“The Algerian regime is on the verge of disintegration,” Ilyas El Omari, also the governor of the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceïma region, said in an interview with the Spanish-language Atalayar newspaper published yesterday.

For El Omari, “what happens in [the region of] Guerguerate is directly linked to the internal crisis in Algeria” which “is experiencing a serious institutional, economic and social crisis.”

Read: Tensions between Algeria and Morocco at Arab League

Guerguerate is considered “an illegitimate zone” where “smuggling of tobacco, foods diverted from the Saharawi camps of Tindouf” and “proximity to the centres of Islamic terrorism in the Great Sahara and the Atlantic Ocean” are rife, according to Morocco.

“The Polisario [Front] cannot fire a single shot and its secretary-general, appointed by Algiers, cannot move a finger without order from Algeria,” he explained, referring to the secessionist Sahrawi Arab rebels in the contested Western Sahara, fighting against Rabat.

According to the politician, it is a situation where “Algeria, through the Polisario, jeopardises not only Morocco, but also international trade and regional security in the Atlantic.”

Morocco and Spain must be particularly “vigilant”, El Omari said.

Algeria has long backed the Polisario Front’s fight for the self-determination of the Sahrawi people in the Western Sahara against Morocco who considers the disputed territory part of its sovereign territory. Algeria does so in order to weaken its western neighbour.

El Omari, who came second in the legislative elections last October, also warned of the disintegration of Algeria. “The president is sick and an invalid, the struggle for succession is in progress, [there is a dizzying] fall in oil prices, rising unemployment and empty state coffers.”