France Refuses To Take Position Over Sahara

France refuses to take some positions which are expected of it (as in the Sahara issue) and fully assumes the responsibility of this decision, said on Thursday French President Emmanuel Macron before the French community in Gabon.
Macron said that France is a neutral interlocutor that speaks to everyone and its role is not to interfere in the domestic policy of Gabon or elsewhere.
This refusal to take a position, which Macron affirmed out loud and fully assumed, is considered an unequivocal response to King Mohammed VI’s call, made in his speech dated August 20, 2022.
The Monarch said that “the Sahara issue is the lens through which Morocco looks at the world. It is the clear, simple benchmark whereby Morocco measures the sincerity of friendships and the efficiency of partnerships.”
The King also called on the traditional or new partners of Morocco to clarify and review their ambiguous positions.
Back in 1958, when the Moroccan national liberation army from the north and the Saharan tribes were about to expel the Spanish forces from the Moroccan Sahara, Spain asked for France’s support to repulse the Moroccan attack.
In this operation called “Écouvillon”, France mobilized no less than 5,000 men, 70 warplanes and 600 vehicles, in addition to the 9,000 Spanish soldiers.
Consequently, France stopped the Moroccan liberating movement in the Sahara by killing hundreds of Moroccans in addition to the thousands that France murdered in Morocco between 1912 and 1956.
France’s hypocrisy became clear when it came to gas. The former colonizer picked Algiers, at a time when gas is becoming a scarce and expensive commodity, despite the fabled hatred for the junta.
Today, France is becoming a pariah state. The Malians, Central Africans, and Burkinabes have driven all French presence out of their territories and the people of the four Central African countries that Emmanuel Macron is visiting are protesting his arrival and deeming him a “persona non grata”.
The French media arm (Le Monde, RFI, AFP, and France 24 in particular) through which the French state is blackmailing the African regimes has become outdated and untrusted, even for the Quai d’Orsay which finances it.
Macron’s France has not yet understood that what is required is the withdrawal of its military contingents in Africa, and not their reduction. The real demand is to liberate the CFA franc zone and give back the monetary, economic, and political sovereignty to 14 African countries, as well as stopping the plundering of Africa’s wealth and the interference in its internal affairs.
France needs an in-depth reform of its African policy instead of its minor or deceptive adjustments. It should not perceive Morocco as the source of its misfortunes in Africa, an adversary or even an enemy. Rather, it should appreciate the monarch’s policy of extended hand made in his Abidjan speech (Feb.14, 2014).
“Africa is a large continent, thanks to its strengths, resources and potential. It must take charge of itself, as it is no longer a colonized continent,” King Mohammed VI had said.
The king had affirmed that a France-Morocco-Africa tripartite cooperation is a win-win model for the three parties, which is in favor of the former colonial power.
France is now paying the price of deliberately ignoring such offer.