Morocco: king suggests Algeria might benefit from Atlantic outlet 

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI does not oppose granting Algeria, in one way or another, an outlet to the Atlantic Ocean through Western Sahara. The king’s indirect proposal came in a speech addressed to the Moroccan people on Wednesday night on national Green March Day. This commemorates the mass march on 6 November, 1975, which saw 350,000 Moroccans walking into Western Sahara, which was under Spanish colonial rule at the time.

In his speech, the king praised the people’s support for the autonomy proposal as a solution to the Western Sahara conflict and expressed regret over other parties’ insistence on solutions from the past, such as the self-determination referendum. That was a reference to the Polisario Front — the Western Sahara independence movement — and its backer Algeria.

“It is time for the UN to assume its responsibility and clarify the big difference between the real and legitimate world represented by Morocco in its Sahara, and a frozen world, far from reality and its developments,” said the Moroccan monarch.

Despite the wave of criticism, his speech carried a new proposal. “There are those who exploit the Sahara issue to obtain access to the Atlantic Ocean,” he said. “To them we say: We do not reject that. As everyone knows, Morocco has proposed an international initiative to facilitate the access of the Sahel countries to the Atlantic Ocean, within the framework of partnership and cooperation, and to achieve joint progress for all the people of the region.”

The king’s words reiterated that Algeria has strategic ambitions to have access to a direct outlet to the Atlantic Ocean. This is the first time since the outbreak of the conflict that Morocco has not opposed granting Algeria such access.

This initiative-proposal is being put forward within the framework of the Atlantic Initiative presented by Morocco at the end of last year, when the ministers of the African Sahel countries agreed on 23 December in Marrakesh to establish a national working group in each country to prepare and propose ways to activate the Sahel countries’ access so as to benefit from the Atlantic Ocean.

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