8/3/2019 History and Implications of the Moroccan-Algerian Border Opening

1/3

History and Implications of the Moroccan-Algerian Border OpeningJeremy FarrellFebruary 8, 2012

! Much has been made recently about the possibility of reopening the shared Moroccan-Algeria border, with a tentative date of may 2012 being cited by several sources, with moregloomy outlooks being forecast in some corners of the Arab world. Last week counterpartsSaadeddine Othmani and Murad al-Madlasi, the Moroccan and Algerian ministers of foreignaffairs, respectively, met with each other in a diplomatic overture not seen between the twocountries since 2003. While expectations for such a move have ebbed and flowed ever sinceKing Mohammed VI took power in 1999, momentum seems to be building at this crucial time instate-level maneuvering in the wake ofthe Arab Spring and the rise ofIslamist political partiesthroughout North Africa. If the step to reopen the border is taken, it would uncork a long-dormant economic potential in addition to serving as a landmark achievement of cooperationbetween the two countries.

On the economic side of the equation latent material gains have gone unrealized as aresult of the border closings, costing each country billions of dollars as measured in potentialindustry, energy expenditures and tourism. An al-Akhbar English article estimated that Moroccomisses out on $2 billion in revenue annually from Algerian tourism alone resulting from theborder closure, a figure which was surely higher before the 2004 decision to lift visa restrictionson Algerians. With Tunisia still in a transitional phase after the fall of Ben Ali, Morocco is poisedto host an additional 1.5 to 2 million tourists from Algeria annually ... a shot in the arm fortourism... [which could] revive a number of projects in the east of the country, which weredamaged by the earlier decision to close the border. The border closure has long stymied efforts to conduct even modest trade between thetwo countries. Algeria and Morocco claim the lowest level of cross border trade of any two

countries in the world, and the intransigence of the problem has contributed to a very weakArab Maghreb Union (AMU), with intra-Union trade amounting to 2% of the total tradeconducted with the rest of the world. In the field of energy production and consumption Moroccoand Algeria consume 61.8% of the regions energy as of 2006, but only Algeria is able toproduce oil or natural gas, with the capacity to produce the latter at a rate more than that 5.5times higher than Libya, Moroccos largest trading partner in that sector. As a result of moreopen trade in these fields, the gains to be made in the eastern regions of the Morocco anchoredaround urban centers Oujda and Figuig, by many measures one of the least developed in thecountry where remittances provide much of the income, could have considerable effects on asituation in dire need of boost. Likewise, such a move would position Algeria to considerablystrengthen the efficacy of AMU efforts to promote regional trade to its own benefit.

Beyond the material gains to be had for each country, there is the real possibility ofmaking history by brokering the first real border agreement between the two states without theinput of outside actors. Most reports of the border dispute read as does this al-Arabiya article:

In 1994, Morocco accused Algerian authorities of planning a hotel bombing that killedtwo Spanish tourists in the city of Marrakesh. Soon thereafter, Moroccan authorities placed visa

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/01/16/188650.htmlhttp://www.economist.com/node/16219845http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/africa/former-boomtowns-wither-as-border-dispute-with-algeria-continueshttp://www.gtz.de/en/weltweit/maghreb-naher-osten/marokko/23994.htmhttp://www.economist.com/node/16219845http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/africa/former-boomtowns-wither-as-border-dispute-with-algeria-continueshttp://www.moroccoboard.com/news/5123-morocco-algeria-border-to-open-shortlyhttp://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/040803/2004080318.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/03/political-islam-poised-arab-springhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/03/political-islam-poised-arab-springhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/03/political-islam-poised-arab-springhttp://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/ar/features/awi/features/2012/02/01/feature-01http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/EXERES/489A15D4-1F67-4A3E-B2EE-654171C5B401.htmhttp://www.france24.com/ar/20120124-algeria-morocco-first-visit-by-moroccan-foreign-minister-to-algeria-since-2003http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/algeria-morocco-border-set-open-mayhttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/01/16/188650.htmlhttp://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/01/16/188650.htmlhttp://www.economist.com/node/16219845http://www.economist.com/node/16219845http://www.gtz.de/en/weltweit/maghreb-naher-osten/marokko/23994.htmhttp://www.gtz.de/en/weltweit/maghreb-naher-osten/marokko/23994.htmhttp://www.thenational.ae/news/world/africa/former-boomtowns-wither-as-border-dispute-with-algeria-continueshttp://www.thenational.ae/news/world/africa/former-boomtowns-wither-as-border-dispute-with-algeria-continueshttp://www.piie.com/publications/chapters_preview/4266/09iie4266.pdfhttp://www.piie.com/publications/chapters_preview/4266/09iie4266.pdfhttp://www.economist.com/node/16219845http://www.economist.com/node/16219845http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/africa/former-boomtowns-wither-as-border-dispute-with-algeria-continueshttp://www.thenational.ae/news/world/africa/former-boomtowns-wither-as-border-dispute-with-algeria-continueshttp://www.moroccoboard.com/news/5123-morocco-algeria-border-to-open-shortlyhttp://www.moroccoboard.com/news/5123-morocco-algeria-border-to-open-shortlyhttp://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/040803/2004080318.htmlhttp://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/040803/2004080318.htmlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/03/political-islam-poised-arab-springhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/03/political-islam-poised-arab-springhttp://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/ar/features/awi/features/2012/02/01/feature-01http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/ar/features/awi/features/2012/02/01/feature-01http://www.aljazeera.net/NR/EXERES/489A15D4-1F67-4A3E-B2EE-654171C5B401.htmhttp://www.aljazeera.net/NR/EXERES/489A15D4-1F67-4A3E-B2EE-654171C5B401.htmhttp://www.france24.com/ar/20120124-algeria-morocco-first-visit-by-moroccan-foreign-minister-to-algeria-since-2003http://www.france24.com/ar/20120124-algeria-morocco-first-visit-by-moroccan-foreign-minister-to-algeria-since-2003http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/algeria-morocco-border-set-open-mayhttp://english.al-akhbar.com/content/algeria-morocco-border-set-open-may

8/3/2019 History and Implications of the Moroccan-Algerian Border Opening

2/3

requirement on Algerians wishing to travel to Morocco. Algeria responded by slapping visarequirement on Moroccans and moved to close the borders with its neighboring kingdom. While this is an accurate accounting of the events which led to the 1994 border closings,it omits significant aspects of the history of the border between the two countries. The borders

between historical Moroccan and Algerian state actors was infrequently the subject of debatebefore the arrival of the French in Algeria in 1830. After the communication with the MoroccanSultan Abderrahmane in 1842 in which he deemed the delineation of frontiersunnecessary (Heggoy, p. 18), the French in Algiers came to terms with the Cherifianauthorities in the Treaty of Lalla-Marnia in 1845, which established a border from theMediterranean 163 km inland to the peak of Teniet al-Sessi (Reyner, p. 316); this was to be thefirst and last agreement between the French and Moroccan authorities concerning frontiers andthereafter the French rarely pursued the demarcation of borders in the rest of their colonialholdings in Africa (Heggoy, p. 318-9). A 1902 extension of the Lalla-Mernia called the VarnierLine lengthened the treaty line south to Figuig and drew a loosely defined border from that pointto the south-west near modern Tindouf, an arrangement which informs the border to this day. The

borders were solidified with Moroccan authorities agreement to become a protectorate in 1912and a series of Franco-Spanish conventions in 1904 and 1912, while a 1934 proposal by ColonelTrinquet to move the line south-east, thus incorporating Algerian territory into Morocco, wasrejected by authorities in Paris. Independence by the two states complicated matters further. The post-ProtectorateMoroccan borders were drawn at the Varnier Line. Despite Algerian attempts, Mohammed Vrefused to negotiate with France on the matter of borders from the period of 1956-62, preferringinstead to negotiate with an independent Algerian state (Wild, p. 21). During that time theirredentist push from members of the Istiqlal Party, most notably Alla al-Fassi and his brotherMohammed, for the expansion of the Moroccan state to its historical frontiers, which includedthe land exchange proposed by Trinquet, increased (Wild, p. 22). When Algeria won

independence president Ahmed Ben Bella fought back against these expansionist policiesdeeming it, necessary under the UN Charter for [all nations to] abandon expansionistideas. (Wild, p. 23). The situation deteriorated in the fall of 1963, resulting in the short livedSand War in October of that year. Attempts to mediate the dispute from Habib Bourguiba inTunis and Gamal Abd al-Naser were rebuffed on successive days, but the Emperor Haile Sellaiseand Modibo Keta were successful in convening a meeting in Bamako October 29-30, in whichcurrent Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika participated. While the effort was successful inestablishing a brief cease-fire, military action continued thereafter. No solution on the state-levelwas reached until 1972, whereupon a basis for the border was agreed upon. The agreement wasratified by both the Algerian and Moroccan governments, but a border was never demarcated.Tensions were once again fanned after Moroccan claims to the Western Sahara in 1975 and

remained strained thereafter, with the 1994 border closing serving as the low point. The possibility of a border reopening between Algeria and Morocco, then, is an almostunprecedented opportunity in the bi-lateral relations between the two in modern times. On aconcrete level, the neighbors will be able to address economic issues which have long-stemmedfrom border issues, including those prior to the border closing of 1994. The opportunities alsoextend to a wider field, perhaps encouraging greater integration in the Maghreb and across NorthAfrica for trade and political coordination. On another plane, the opportunity to enact the first

http://www.tunisia-live.net/2012/02/07/tunisian-president-launches-a-tour-to-revive-arab-maghreb-union/http://acc.teachmideast.org/texts.php?module_id=3&reading_id=119&sequence=18http://acc.teachmideast.org/texts.php?module_id=3&reading_id=119&sequence=10http://www.tunisia-live.net/2012/02/07/tunisian-president-launches-a-tour-to-revive-arab-maghreb-union/http://www.tunisia-live.net/2012/02/07/tunisian-president-launches-a-tour-to-revive-arab-maghreb-union/http://acc.teachmideast.org/texts.php?module_id=3&reading_id=119&sequence=18http://acc.teachmideast.org/texts.php?module_id=3&reading_id=119&sequence=18http://acc.teachmideast.org/texts.php?module_id=3&reading_id=119&sequence=10http://acc.teachmideast.org/texts.php?module_id=3&reading_id=119&sequence=10

8/3/2019 History and Implications of the Moroccan-Algerian Border Opening

3/3

ever successful border agreement without the involvement of foreign entities between the twostates also looms. Increased cooperation being pushed by the serendipitously named MoroccanParty for Justice and Development and ascendant Algerian Front for Justice and Developmentopens new horizons for the two countries despite still persistent questions regarding the WesternSahara and terrorism. Opening the border, though, could be the first in a series of momentous,

region-defining shifts in the short term.

Citations:- Patricia Berko Wild. The Organization of African Unity and the Algerian-Moroccan Border

Conflict: A Study of New Machinery for Peacekeeping and for the Peaceful Settlement ofDisputes among African States,International Organization , Vol. 20, No. 1 (Winter, 1966), pp.18-36.

- Andrew Heggoy. Colonial Origins of the Algerian-Moroccan Border Conflict of October1963,African Studies Review, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Apr., 1970), pp. 17-22.

- Anthony S. Reyner. Morocco's International Boundaries: A Factual Background, The Journalof Modern African Studies, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Sep., 1963), pp. 313-326.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/158912http://www.jstor.org/stable/158912http://www.jstor.org/stable/523680%20.http://www.jstor.org/stable/523680%20.http://www.jstor.org/stable/523680%20.http://www.jstor.org/stable/523680%20.http://www.jstor.org/stable/2705788http://www.jstor.org/stable/2705788http://www.jstor.org/stable/2705788http://www.jstor.org/stable/2705788http://www.jstor.org/stable/2705788http://www.jstor.org/stable/2705788http://uk.news.yahoo.com/algeria-islamist-leader-predicts-unrest-vote-rigged-140241187.htmlhttp://uk.news.yahoo.com/algeria-islamist-leader-predicts-unrest-vote-rigged-140241187.htmlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15902703http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15902703http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15902703http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15902703