Moroccan military and strategic affairs expert Abderrahmane Mekkaoui has called for moving the debate over the disputed Morocco-Algeria border from political rhetoric to strategic policy circles, particularly in the United States.
Speaking to weekly newspaper Al Ayam, Mekkaoui said Morocco should build a comprehensive historical and legal file documenting the region’s borders during French colonial rule and present it to U.S. policymakers, researchers and think tanks.
He said the file should include pre-independence French maps, records of Morocco-Algeria negotiations, documents related to a 1961 agreement, U.S. and French diplomatic correspondence, and records concerning France’s activities in the Sahara.
Mekkaoui argued that greater diplomatic and research efforts were needed to challenge what he described as misleading historical narratives about the origins of sovereignty over areas including Tindouf, Bechar, Touat and Gourara.
The issue of the so-called Eastern Sahara reflects a longstanding dispute over the history of the Morocco-Algeria border. Morocco and Algeria have maintained different interpretations of how the colonial-era boundary was established. Previous reporting has cited historical and U.S. archival documents in discussions of the dispute.
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