The Kingdom of Morocco has shown a steadfast commitment to supporting Libyans in the process of rebuilding their state and bridging the gap between political parties in Libya, away from any narrow agendas or self-interests; it has hosted a series of political consultations, the most recent being the Bouznika consultations between the House of Representatives and the High Council of State, which resulted in important understandings and agreements to overcome the state of political division and form a unified government that leads the country towards holding fair parliamentary and presidential elections that respect the will of the Libyan people.
At a time when the agreement reached on the Kingdom's soil was welcomed and met with consensus by most parties, led by the House of Representatives, the High Council of State, and the Libyan government headed by Osama Hammad, it was met with rejection by some parties facing major legitimacy issues, primarily the government of Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, as its Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a letter to its Moroccan counterpart pointing out what it described as the "necessity of coordinating with it to hold any meetings between Libyan parties in Morocco".
A letter rejected by the Coordinating Committee for Joint Meetings between the House of Representatives and the High Council of State, which renewed its thanks to Morocco for hosting the Bouznika meeting. The committee confirmed in a statement that "members of the two councils do not need anyone's approval to meet in any place where the appropriate conditions for success are available, whether inside or outside the country".
For its part, the High Council of State, headed by Khaled Al-Mishri, expressed its deep surprise at the statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Dbeibeh government, whose term has expired, and considered that "demanding the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs to coordinate in advance with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of National Unity is a flagrant interference in the affairs of the two councils, and indicates a lack of knowledge of the limits of the executive authority and ignorance of the principle of separation of powers, which requires accountability"; it also confirmed that it establishes the executive authority and does not fall under its authority.
The statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the government of Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, from which the House of Representatives withdrew confidence, reflects, according to observers of Libyan affairs, the existence of external parties supporting this government, led by Algeria, which are exerting political pressure on Dbeibeh to hinder the implementation of the outcomes of the consultative meetings in Morocco and deepen the Libyan division. Algeria relies on a strategy of thwarting initiatives hosted by Morocco, exploiting the fragility of the situation of some parties to direct them to serve its regional agenda and its conflict with the Kingdom, even if it is at the expense of Libya's stability and territorial integrity.
Libyan consensus and Algerian interference
Commenting on this, Chawki Ben Zahra, an Algerian opposition political activist, said that "the understandings that resulted from the Bouznika consultations were widely welcomed by most political parties in Libya, and therefore the statement of the Dbeibeh government's foreign ministry is incomprehensible, and reveals the existence of a conflict and clash of interests within this government, which suffers from a major problem in terms of representing the Libyan people".
Ben Zahra added, speaking to the electronic newspaper Hespress, that "this statement also reveals the existence of interventions and pressures from some external parties close to this government, led by the Algerian regime, in order to strike these understandings and return the country to square one", confirming in this context that "the regime in Algeria views the Moroccan role in the Libyan file with a lot of suspicion, given its inability to influence it, and therefore it is trying to employ some parties to settle its scores with Morocco".
The same speaker continued that "the Algerian regime has accumulated a series of precedents in negative interference in the Libyan file by supporting certain parties at the expense of others, and it even reached the point of elements of the Algerian army entering Libyan territory and supporting some armed groups to overthrow Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar", noting that "the regime seeks to strike any agreement hosted by Morocco, as it had previously tried to do so during the signing of the Skhirat Agreement in 2015".
The Algerian opposition political activist pointed out that "the Algerian regime will intervene to hinder the implementation of the outcomes of the Bouznika consultations, given that it has a major problem with Morocco hosting these consultations, by fueling the conflict and political division in Libya", considering that "the Kingdom of Morocco is a neutral country that has the ability to talk to all Libyan parties and bring them together, unlike the regime in Algeria, which will try to harass the Moroccan roles in the Libyan file away from the content of this file itself".
Moroccan efforts and Algerian ambitions
For his part, Mohamed Atif, a researcher in international law and international relations, explained that "the Bouznika agreement was the result of the accumulations achieved by Morocco in the Libyan file, as it hosted many sessions of the Libyan political dialogue that produced very important results in the direction of rebuilding the Libyan state and overcoming the state of severe political division in this Maghreb country".
Atif confirmed, in a statement to the electronic newspaper Hespress, that "the Kingdom confirms, by bringing together the Libyan political parties, its active regional role in establishing stability in the region, and its commitment to the security of neighbouring countries away from any agenda or ambitions", highlighting that "Algeria does not view the Moroccan diplomatic efforts in the Libyan issue with satisfaction, and always seeks to undermine them, even at the expense of the will of the Libyans and the security and stability in this country".
The interviewee told Hespress that "Algeria is trying to exert political pressure on some Libyan parties to influence the Moroccan role and diminish it, in order to cover up the loss of its regional influence and the decline of its roles in many regional files and issues", confirming that "the military regime that adopted the doctrine of fueling conflicts and creating tensions proves every time that it is a factor of instability in the region, and is ready to interfere in the internal affairs of countries and disregard their sovereignty just to oppose Morocco and undermine its diplomatic efforts that are accepted by the Libyans".
The post Algeria seeks to hinder Libyan reconciliation after the success of the Bouznika consultations appeared first on Hespress - Moroccan electronic newspaper.
