He is in Algiers tonight and will return to his country much of which has been illegally occupied by Morocco since 1975.

Algeria supports the SADR and provides shelter in refugee camps from where the government in  exile operates.

Morocco, which is an absolute monarchy, is furious at Spain providing medical treatment for Ghali.

The Madrid government insists it acted on perfectly justifiable humanitarian grounds

In retaliation last month, Moroccan guards were withdrawn from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on the north African coast, allowing hundreds of people trying to flee the oppression the kingdom to swim around the fences into Spanish territory.

At least one man drowned in the process and the refugees were returned to Morocco.

A handful of  Moroccan-financed Saharawi made allegations of human rights abuses against Ghali.

Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz heard their evidence and  ruled there were no clear indications of Ghali’s involvement in any crimes. He rejected a call for Ghali to be detained.

Spanish  prosecutors have not pursued the matter.

Analysts say Morocco’s King Mohammed VI  has cut a rod for his back seeking legal action against Ghali.

It has created a precedent for legal action to be taken in Spain against the scores of Moroccan officials accused of human rights abuses against Saharawi nationals.

They risk arrest if the travel to or transit through Spain.

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Donald Trump’s claim to have brokered the deal is made all the more ridiculous by the well-know reality that Tel Aviv and Rabat have secretive military relations dating back decades – to the time they were both in league with the apartheid regime.

In those Cold War days Morocco was being armed by Pretoria and Israel cooperated with apartheid South Africa in developing a nuclear weapon.

Both countries justifiably feel deep shame about this now and speak of it either with reluctance or try to deny it.

The surprise in yesterday’s announcement by President Trump is his recognizing what he calls Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara.

This amounts to him flying in the face on international condemnation of Morocco’s 1995 invasion of the former Spanish territory and its illegal occupation of it since then.

Britain, America’s permanent Western partner on the United Nations Security Council, who joined in scolding Morocco 45 year ago, hastened today to stress that its position on Western Sahara has not changed.

It is holding Morocco to its promise to hold a referendum on self-governance for the territory.

That was a condition of the 1991 ceasefire ending Morocco’s 16 year war with Polisario, the Western Sahara liberation movement.

The African Union also hastened to emphasize that Western Sahara is a founder member of the continental grouping having been admitted to its predecessor the Organization of African Unity.

Morocco stormed out of the OAU when this happened and shunned Africa until it recently joined the AU as a fellow member with the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic.

King Mohammed VI, Morocco’s absolute ruler, has clearly opted once again to turn his country’s back on Africa to take up with Israel and the lame duck Trump administration in the United States.

It remains to be seen whether President Joe Biden will persist with the maverick position on Morocco which is at odds with international opinion.

The ruling African national Congress in South Africa which currently occupies the  chair of the African Union says: “It is regrettable that outgoing President Trump in his last days in office tries to cement his legacy of reactionary foreign policies, that does not contribute to peaceful resolutions of conflict in  the world, but in fact fuels hatred and conflict.”

It “calls on all international and progressive forces on the continent and in the world to condemn this deal and continue to work for the implementation of UN and AU resolutions.”

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 Of course King Mohamed VI and his Moroccan officials will say that their record-breaking five-time losing quest to host the football World Cup has nothing to do with his father annexing the Western Sahara 42 years ago.

They would, wouldn’t they?

The late King Hassan refused to acknowledge that his illegal occupation of the former Spanish colony put Morocco beyond the pale of international respectability.

He jailed any of his subjects who dared even to suggest this.

Whatever he says about presiding over a more liberal system, his successor , known as M6, has enforced this official myopia with equal vigour and cruelty.

I recall attending an editorial conference of a so-called independent Moroccan newspaper.

“Could you possibly conceive of ever publishing the views of a respected academic arguing for granting the Saharawi people self-determination?” I asked.

The l meeting ended right there as the terrified editor and journalists left the room.

I am waiting to see how the Moroccan media explains the harsh reality that the country’s  defiance of international opinion caused no fewer than 11 African countries – nearly a fifth of the  continent – to vote against the kingdom’s bid when FIFA took the decision in Moscow yesterday about who should host the 2026 football World Cup. 

South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe were open about rejecting the last colonial vestige in Africa and their  support for the occupied Saharawi people.

Others said it was a straightforward business decision: the so-called united bid by the United States, Canada and Mexico guarantee a profit of $11 billion for FIFA. That is money that will trickle down to them.

Morocco indicated  it would make $5 billion, which is more than Brazil earned from its 2014 World Cup and certainly more than South Africa raked for World Cup 2010.

The point not being made by the sporting diplomats is that Morocco has shown time and again that it cannot be taken at its word.

It has lied internationally with promises like allowing the Saharawi people a referendum to determine their own future.

And it has lied to its own people about economic plans that have done nothing to reduce unemployment and spur economic growth.

Meanwhile it spends billions keeping 120 000 soldiers guarding the 2 700 km sand wall, or berm, between the occupied and liberated zones of Western Shara.

Morocco can barely maintain this.

It relies on financial support from France and the United State who hold their noses about Morocco’s lamentable human rights record because they see it as a bastion against militant Islam in North Africa.

Nevertheless Morocco has actually become one of the most dangerous breeding grounds for Islamist terrorists.

So how could the country that relies on aid, tourism – particularly European sex tourism, exploiting the dagga trade, growing oranges and raking in profits from stolen Saharawi phosphates possible afford to stage a World Cup?

The Rabat authorities managed to cobble together a pitch, but Morocco’s neighbours and fellow Africans clearly did not believe it.

If M6 and his men really plan to make yet another bid in 2030, they have their work cut out if  they plan to avoid another humiliation.

Ending their occupation of Western Sahara would be an excellent start.

But that is all it would be: a start.

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There will be many alluring offers from the Kingdom that has a history of making promises that it fails to keep.

Hopefully, as a hard-nosed businessman,  Ramaphosa will see he should put them on hold.

Morocco  is currently looking to joining the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which leading member Nigeria has indicated it will oppose.

Flushed with victory after being admitted to the African Union, Morocco is bent on being seen as a major player in Africa.

Customarily this entails hauling out the cheque book to buy what it wants.

According to Morocco’s state media, King Mohammed VI’s meeting in at the Africa Union European Union summit in Abidjan with President Jacob Zuma was master stroke.

There is considerable historical confusion about bilateral relations between Morocco and South Africa.

Playing fast and loose with the truth, Morocco thrives on such confusion.

It likes to talk about Morocco being readmitted to AU.

In fact is never was a member of the union.

It walked out of the AU’s predecessor, the Organization of African Unity when the continental body recognized the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic which is a country illegally occupied by Morocco in 1974 and held since then in defiance of the United Nations and the very AU it now belongs to.

So it was not surprising when Morocco humiliatingly failed to prevent the SADR attending the AU/EU summit.

According to South African officials there. King Mohammed was surprised at how vehemently African Nations insisted on the SADR being there.

They believe that the king was simply not informed of this by his officials who are afraid to tell him what they fear he might not want to hear.

So Morocco has become a new member of the AU, despite objections by South Africa and Nigeria.

The new continental body is adamant that the status of the SADR, which is a founder member of the AU, is not in any danger.

South Africa continues strongly to support the AU position that Morocco has to end Africa last colonial vestige and ends it occupation of the SADR.

Which makes it amusing that the Rabat regime should talk about upgrading relations with Pretoria.

The fact is, Morocco furiously withdrew its ambassador to South Africa 13 years ago when President Thabo Mbeki’s government finally kept Nelson Mandela’s promise and established diplomatic ties with with the SADR.

The Moroccan embassy still operates in Pretoria, sans ambassador.

There was no talk of readmitting a chief envoy from the kingdom when Zuma saw the king  in Abidjan.

The SADR has not objected to that meeting.

However, those who have followed Morocco’s duplicity over Western Sahara feel the timing was unfortunate.

It drew attention away from the Saharawi diplomatic victory of attending a summit with the European Union by making the meeting the story.

The king will seek to capitalise on this by seeking agreement  to send an ambassador.

Zuma, for as long as he is president, and Ramaphosa when he takes the reins should delay this.

Agreement from South Africa should come only once Morocco has at very least stopped seeking to elbow the SADR out of the AU.

Putting the ever-present diplomatic question: what’s in it for us? simply reinforces the case for playing a little hard ball.

Morocco has nothing to offer South Africa.

The idea of a north-south axis at the two ends of Africa is already being pursued by Algeria and Tunisia.

Morocco is not an economic power.

it diplomatic influence as a haven of stability in the Islamic world is fast being eroded.

This leaves it with nothing more on the table that oranges, dagga and bit of tourism.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime lists Morocco as the largest dagga exporter on the planet.

The US Drug Enforcement Agency calls it the largest supplier of dagga to Europe.

Hardly worth selling one’s principles for.

So, hamba kancane, Mr President.

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Also holding thumbs as the African Union summit gets underway at the weekend is Morocco’s King Mohammed VI who wants his country to join the body.

In Kigali last year, African leaders gave the thumbs down to the five candidates seeking to replace Nkosazana Dalamini Zuma.

So she was obliged to stay on – despite having a domestic political agenda that includes being a candidate for leadership of the ruling African National Congress.

King Mohammed VI believed Morocco had the support within the AU to join the organization having stormed out of its predecessor 32 years ago when the Western Sahara it occupies in defiance of the United Nations became a member.

In Addis Ababa next week he’ll try again hoping to sidestep the AU constitution.

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Morocco is steaming ahead with its plan to join the African Union.

King Mohammed VI is bent on achieving this at the AU summit next month.

He’s not a man accustomed to being told: no.

His officials have told him that joining requires a majority of AU members, and they are confident of attracting this.

So, the King is visiting as many African capitals as possible to make the case for his country joining the family.

Sometimes he gets ahead of himself. He told the Zambians, for example, what date he was planning to arrive.

They responded that they would let him know when it would be convenient.

When AU Commission chair Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma told Rabat that joining the body entailed more than merely a question of securing a majority of members, the Moroccan authorities furiously denounced her for blocking their aspirations.

Understanding the AU reservations about taking on this issue, requires looking back at the last time the continental body was seized with the Western Sahara.

Back then it was called the Organization of African Unity and it was a  very different kettle of fish.

Not to put too fine a point to it, the OAU was a cozy coterie of what was fashionable called the Big Men of Africa.

Their word was law. They brooked no criticism.

When King Hassan II – Mohammed VI’s father – invaded and occupied the Western Sahara, he did not expect push back from his African peers.

But for them decolonization took precedence  over everything.

The argument by the Polisario Front – the ruling party in the occupied country – that their’s was a decolonization issue held sway.

The Western Sahara became a member of the OAU 21 years ago and Morocco left the organization in high dudgeon.

OAU members breathed a sigh of relief because the preoccupation with Western Sahara had almost paralyzed its operations for years.

African leaders had tired of Morocco’s broken promises to allow the Saharawi to determine their future by way of a referendum.

When the OAU became the AU in 2002, Western Sahara signed on as a foundation member.

Morocco elected to remain out.

The Kingdom has a lot going for is strategically. For example France and the United States buy the Moroccan argument that  losing Western Sahara will be the undoing of the kingdom that lies as a bastion against Islamist extremism at the very top of Africa.

Economically, Morocco is a chronic underperformer. Its chief exports are oranges and dagga. Legal trade in the former is largely used to cover the illegal transactions in the latter.

Morocco’s claims its proximity to the Gulf kingdom has given it a certain leverage  over investment funds.

It has used this to the full in persuading Africans to let them into the AU.

However that influence has not withstood the acid test.

Morocco told its friends in the Gulf that it would lead an African walk out from the Arab African summit because of the presence of a Western Sahara delegation.

In the event the Africans stayed put. The walk out involved Morocco and a half dozen Arab states.

The real problem when it comes to joining the African Union, is not Morocco’s lack of muscle but its apparent inability to face reality.

Rabat officials insist there will be no price.

Simply put, it means Morocco expects to walk into the AU without settling Africa’s last colonial issue.

Not only will they not deal with the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, but they entertain the vain hope that  their AU friends will support  expulsion of SADR.

A number of AU members do not have diplomatic ties with the Western Sahara. But the body’s constitution make no provision for expelling a founder member

The AU has changed radically from the OAU. The country hoping to join the new body  has altered not one jot from the kingdom that stormed out of the old one.

“Letting in this unchanged Morocco would be opening the door to a time bomb”, says Western Sahara ambassador designate  Radhi Sehaiar Bachir.

AU leaders preparing for their next summit have a daunting list of difficulties: DRC, Burundi, South Sudan just for starters.

Are they ready to take on another?

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He was invited  a month ago by King Mohammed VI.

Generally the attendance at an international conference of the man wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur provokes a call for the host to arrest him.

No such request has been made by the Hague-based tribunal.

Morocco is not a member of the International Criminal Court.

It has signed the Rome Statute giving birth to the court of last resort but never ratified it.

The ICC is playing its cards close to its chest in recent days with Russian President Vladimir Putin cutting all ties following criticism of the invasion of Crimea

and Philippino President  Rodrigo Duterte threatening  similar action because of attacks on his policy of killing drug traffickers.

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Speaking at the COP22 climate change conference, which has entered its high-level stage in Marrakesh, the king urges all parties to work on translating their commitment to the values of justice and solidarity into concrete action.

ends intro

The king says he’s speaking in the name of our shared destiny and historic responsibility.

He says advanced countries should honor their commitments and mobilize a minimum of $100 billion dollars by 2020, which was a key component of the Paris  Climate Change Agreement.

Initiatives for implementing that agreement include the initiative for the Adaptation of African Agriculture.

The outcome of the Marrakesh conference will be a true test of the efficiency of the climate change commitments made.

21§

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