Marrakech – A confidential Swiss diplomatic letter dated January 30, 1978, shatters any illusion that Algeria’s involvement in the Western Sahara conflict was “principled” or “humanitarian.”
From the Swiss Embassy in Rabat to the Swiss Federal Department of Political Affairs, Ambassador Jean-Pierre Weber wrote in blunt terms of Algeria’s role in the Sahara conflict, describing the Polisario as nothing more than Algeria’s instrument of aggression.
“The war in Western Sahara weighs heavily on the Moroccan economy,” Weber wrote, before making clear what was really happening: “The goal of the Algerian aggression, through the Polisario as proxy, is: to eliminate, if possible, the current regime in Mauritania and replace it with one ‘favorable’ to Algiers.”
The second goal, according to him, is “to crush the Moroccan economy under growing, or at least lasting, military expenditures in order to break the backbone of Moroccan resistance to Algeria’s policy of Maghreb hegemony and African subversion.”
This confidential analysis, circulating among European diplomats, destroys Algeria’s narrative of defending “self-determination.” It places Algiers squarely as the mastermind of a dual-front conspiracy – one designed to destabilize Mauritania, the other to strangle Morocco economically and politically.
The letter adds that “this double objective will not be achieved.” Mauritania’s resolve to resist had hardened, while Morocco remained “unanimous” in its determination and found financial backing from Saudi Arabia.
Still, the Swiss diplomat noted the real toll: Morocco’s economic momentum of the early 1970s had slowed, public finances were strained, and the government was forced into austerity.
From Rabat to Nouakchott, the letter goes on to suggest, Algeria’s scheme was clear: weaponize Polisario to weaken its neighbors, using Sahrawi grievances as a pawn in a grand strategy of regional domination.
The Swiss correspondence makes no attempt to sugarcoat the somber reality of Algeria’s war on Morocco’s territorial integrity. It insisted that Algiers was waging a proxy war, seeking to “break the backbone of Moroccan resistance” and expand its “policy of Maghreb hegemony.”
The Swiss diplomat even described how Algeria’s strategy created ripple effects across Morocco’s economy: foreign suppliers went unpaid, businesses faced arbitrary taxation, and investors reported suffocating audits – all aggravated by defense costs imposed by Algiers’ war.
Algeria armed Polisario to strangle Morocco’s sovereignty
This aligns with what Moroccans have long maintained: that after Spain’s withdrawal in 1975, Algeria deliberately turned the Polisario against Morocco to block the Madrid Accords and prevent Morocco and Mauritania from consolidating sovereignty in Western Sahara.
Rather than join in a regional settlement, Algiers armed, funded, and hosted the Polisario, pushing it toward maximalist positions of “full independence.”
The Swiss letter even underscores Algeria’s economic warfare logic: by forcing Morocco into spiraling defense spending, Algiers hoped to suffocate its development model. The correspondence is proof that European chancelleries, even in 1978, understood the depth of Algeria’s hostile and hegemonic designs.
It is also significant that Weber used the term “aggression” explicitly – acknowledging within diplomatic circles that Algeria was not a neutral party but an instigator. This destroys Algeria’s long-standing claim that it is merely an “observer” in the Sahara dispute.
Four and a half decades later, the consequences are undeniable. Algeria’s actions prolonged a conflict that involved the kidnapping of tens of innocent Sahrawis, forced into the Tindouf camps and labeled “refugees” against their will.
It also poisoned Maghreb unity and entrenched hostility between two neighbors that should have been partners against colonial legacies.
As the 1978 Swiss ambassador warned, “the aim of Algerian aggression through Polisario interposed” was never liberation, but domination. History has confirmed Morocco’s position: Algeria betrayed not only Morocco and Mauritania, but also the principle of regional solidarity – replacing it with a proxy war that still scars North Africa today.
Read also: Spain to Declassify Secret Archives: Morocco Awaits Revelations on Western Sahara
