Exclusive — Morocco FM to Breitbart News: We Support Trump on Iran, Need America’s Help
Caroline Glick / Breitbart News - 16 Sep 2018
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told Breitbart News last Wednesday that the Kingdom of Morocco supports the Trump administration’s policies towards Iran.
Comparing the Trump administration favorably to its predecessor, Bourita said, “We have an opportunity with this administration. We need to make things happen. We have an opportunity also because they are clear in their position about Iran.”
The exclusive interview, held at the Moroccan Embassy in Bucharest, Romania, focused on Morocco’s concerns regarding Iran’s multifaceted operations in North Africa; the threat these operations pose to Morocco and North and West Africa more generally; and Morocco’s hope to cooperate with the Trump administration in blocking Iran’s rise in the region.
Morocco has a history of poor relations with Iran. Rabat cut off ties with Tehran in 2009, and only renewed them in December 2016. The Kingdom cut relations off once again on May 1, 2018. Since then, Bourita has been avidly seeking U.S. support for the Kingdom’s efforts to confront and defeat the threat Iran now poses to North and West Africa.
The Kingdom’s stance suggests that former Obama administration officials — like former Secretary of State John Kerry, who has continued meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif — are wrong to claim that America’s allies stand opposed to President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the nuclear deal with Iran.
In fact, the U.S. has many allies who are deeply supportive and encouraged by the Trump administration’s strategy for blocking Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal and stopping its regional and global terror operations.
The Kingdom of Morocco, for one, clearly views the Trump administration’s determination to halt Iran’s efforts to become a hegemonic power in the Middle East, and over the Muslim world more broadly, with great enthusiasm and hope.
Asked why Morocco cut off ties with Iran in 2009, Bourita said, “ran would like to be in North Africa. They tried to develop a presence in Morocco. Today they are repeating the efforts in other North African countries. They attracted some of our youth by giving them scholarships.”
“We used to have an Iranian cultural attaché in Rabat who has visited the small cities of Morocco making what he was calling book festivals. He was giving books. He was present in every small city,” Bourita added.
“We were asking ourselves why he has to promote the books of Iran there? And we noticed he was giving scholarships. We went from 10 people to 120 people [a year] who were given scholarships to study in Qom. From 2009-2016 we had no relations with Iran because of what they were doing with the scholarships.”
The Moroccan government viewed Iran’s missionary work among its youth as a means to undermine government authority by indoctrinating young Moroccans to reject the moderate Sunni Islam practiced in Morocco in favor of the radical Shia Islam of the Iranian regime.
Bourita explained that Iranian missionary work among the Moroccan diaspora has brought dire consequences to Europe.
“They are targeting our diaspora in Europe, in Belgium in particular. There, because of the hesitation of Europe to manage Islam, they were left to themselves.
“The [European] authorities don’t allow us to send imams because they say maybe it will jeopardize the integration of these people into their countries of residence. So they [the Moroccan migrants] were left to themselves.
“You have Moroccans who are supposed to adopt the Moroccan Islam which is moderate but they are now taught Islam by Afghans or Iranians or by different people. So in this we’ve seen — particularly in Belgium — some attacks against these cities [carried out by Moroccans] and we have the first Moroccan Association for Shia Islam created in Brussels.”
For decades, Morocco’s chief security concern has been the Sahara. Spain governed the Western Sahara as a colony until 1975. Upon the withdrawal of Spanish colonial authorities, Morocco and Mauritania annexed the territory. In 1979, Maurtania withdrew its forces from the Western Sahara and Morocco annexed the areas previously annexed by Mauritania.
In the early 1970s, a separatist movement called the Polisario was established with Soviet support. First serving as an anti-Spanish front in 1975, and openly backed by Algeria, Libya ,and Cuba, the Polisario launched a war for independence against Morocco, (and Mauritania, until 1979). In 1991 the parties agreed to a UN-brokered ceasefire, which was supposed to be followed by a referendum of the population of Western Sahara to determine its future.
The referendum has never taken place because Morocco and the Polisario have not been able to come to an agreement on who has the right to participate in a vote.
In April 2007, the Moroccan government presented an autonomy plan for governing the area based on the Spanish autonomy model applied in places like Catalonia. The U.S. and France both voiced support for it, as did the U.S. Congress. Under the Obama administration, however, the U.S. shifted its position to one of increased support for the Polisario, driving U.S.-Moroccan relations to a low point.
In the meantime, the Western Sahara has been the site of repeated riots and other acts of mayhem sponsored by the Polisario against Morocco. In 2005, the Polisario referred to its operations as its “Independence Intifadah,” along the lines of the Palestinian terror war against Israel.
Today, the Polisario controls some 20 percent of the territory of Western Sahara along its border with Algeria. Its training camps are based around the Algerian city of Tindouf, across the border with both the Western Sahara and Morocco. In 2010, the group organized mass demonstrations that it placed in the framework of the so-called Arab Spring.
In 2016, following Iran’s windfall profits from the nuclear deal, Iran stepped up its offensive operations both in the Middle East and worldwide. One of the hubs of its new efforts was North Africa. Specifically, in November 2016, both through its Lebanese Hezbollah foreign legion and through its diplomatic networks, Iran began sponsoring the Polisario. These operations were massively increased last year.
In March 2017, Morocco arrested Hezbollah financial kingpin Kasseem Tajideen in response to an Interpol arrest warrant issued by the organization’s Washington, DC, office. The Moroccans extradited Tajideen to the United States in May. The U.S. Treasury Department designated Tajideen as a global terrorist in 2009 due to his financial operations on behalf of Hezbollah. Those operations involve massive laundering of funds to Hezbollah through front companies in West Africa.
Bourita told Breitbart News that while the U.S., Israel, and other allies view Hezbollah as mainly a military threat, the Iranian proxy’s operations are far from limited to terrorist and military efforts. In North and West Africa, Hezbollah runs massive financial operations on behalf of Iran. These serve as a means to finance Iran’s global operations.
“You see Hezbollah as a military threat. In Africa we see it also as an economic threat. This Mr. Tajideen who was captured in Morocco was laundering money in Africa. All the benefits to Iran from Hezbollah are being reinvested in Africa. They are buying hotels, supermarkets. So don’t underestimate what Iran is doing in sub Saharan Africa also through financial actions.
“This gentleman [Tajideen], why was he important? He was linking Iran and Hezbollah and sub-Saharan Africa, West Africa in particular. For the United States he was a big fish because he knows the modus operandi for all of these operations. How the money was flowing and invested and coming back.”
As Breitbart News reported in May, beginning in November 2016 – one month before Morocco reinstated diplomatic relations with Iran — a Hezbollah delegation backed and directed by Amir Mousavi, the Iranian cultural attaché at the Iranian Embassy in Algiers, visited Polisario training camps in Tindouf, Algeria.
Bourita provided Breitbart News with a document detailing the vast contacts that have ensued between Hezbollah and Polisario Front commanders in Beirut and in Algeria since.
Following Tajideen’s arrest in Morocco in April 2017, Iran and Hezbollah escalated their involvement with the Polisario. Speaking with Fox News in May, Bourita revealed that Morocco had received documentation showing Iran had begun providing direct military assistance to the Polisario Front through Hezbollah.
Specifically, Hezbollah operatives in Tindouf delivered SAM-9 and SAM-11 surface-to-air missiles to Polisario Front training camps. These are sophisticated missiles, capable — among other things — of shooting down civilian jetliners. They are a step up from the more primitive SAM-7 (Strela) surface-to-air missiles, which have been the weapon of choice for Middle Eastern terror groups for decades.
Following Morocco’s discovery, Bourita flew to Tehran to confront the regime with Morocco’s documentation of the weapons shipments. Rabat chose to cut off its relations with Iran on May 1 after Bourita’s interlocutor refused to accept his evidence or commit to ending Iran’s sponsorship of the Polisario.
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Caroline Glick / Breitbart News - 16 Sep 2018
Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told Breitbart News last Wednesday that the Kingdom of Morocco supports the Trump administration’s policies towards Iran.
Comparing the Trump administration favorably to its predecessor, Bourita said, “We have an opportunity with this administration. We need to make things happen. We have an opportunity also because they are clear in their position about Iran.”
The exclusive interview, held at the Moroccan Embassy in Bucharest, Romania, focused on Morocco’s concerns regarding Iran’s multifaceted operations in North Africa; the threat these operations pose to Morocco and North and West Africa more generally; and Morocco’s hope to cooperate with the Trump administration in blocking Iran’s rise in the region.
Morocco has a history of poor relations with Iran. Rabat cut off ties with Tehran in 2009, and only renewed them in December 2016. The Kingdom cut relations off once again on May 1, 2018. Since then, Bourita has been avidly seeking U.S. support for the Kingdom’s efforts to confront and defeat the threat Iran now poses to North and West Africa.
The Kingdom’s stance suggests that former Obama administration officials — like former Secretary of State John Kerry, who has continued meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif — are wrong to claim that America’s allies stand opposed to President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the nuclear deal with Iran.
In fact, the U.S. has many allies who are deeply supportive and encouraged by the Trump administration’s strategy for blocking Iran’s path to a nuclear arsenal and stopping its regional and global terror operations.
The Kingdom of Morocco, for one, clearly views the Trump administration’s determination to halt Iran’s efforts to become a hegemonic power in the Middle East, and over the Muslim world more broadly, with great enthusiasm and hope.
Asked why Morocco cut off ties with Iran in 2009, Bourita said, “ran would like to be in North Africa. They tried to develop a presence in Morocco. Today they are repeating the efforts in other North African countries. They attracted some of our youth by giving them scholarships.”
“We used to have an Iranian cultural attaché in Rabat who has visited the small cities of Morocco making what he was calling book festivals. He was giving books. He was present in every small city,” Bourita added.
“We were asking ourselves why he has to promote the books of Iran there? And we noticed he was giving scholarships. We went from 10 people to 120 people [a year] who were given scholarships to study in Qom. From 2009-2016 we had no relations with Iran because of what they were doing with the scholarships.”
The Moroccan government viewed Iran’s missionary work among its youth as a means to undermine government authority by indoctrinating young Moroccans to reject the moderate Sunni Islam practiced in Morocco in favor of the radical Shia Islam of the Iranian regime.
Bourita explained that Iranian missionary work among the Moroccan diaspora has brought dire consequences to Europe.
“They are targeting our diaspora in Europe, in Belgium in particular. There, because of the hesitation of Europe to manage Islam, they were left to themselves.
“The [European] authorities don’t allow us to send imams because they say maybe it will jeopardize the integration of these people into their countries of residence. So they [the Moroccan migrants] were left to themselves.
“You have Moroccans who are supposed to adopt the Moroccan Islam which is moderate but they are now taught Islam by Afghans or Iranians or by different people. So in this we’ve seen — particularly in Belgium — some attacks against these cities [carried out by Moroccans] and we have the first Moroccan Association for Shia Islam created in Brussels.”
For decades, Morocco’s chief security concern has been the Sahara. Spain governed the Western Sahara as a colony until 1975. Upon the withdrawal of Spanish colonial authorities, Morocco and Mauritania annexed the territory. In 1979, Maurtania withdrew its forces from the Western Sahara and Morocco annexed the areas previously annexed by Mauritania.
In the early 1970s, a separatist movement called the Polisario was established with Soviet support. First serving as an anti-Spanish front in 1975, and openly backed by Algeria, Libya ,and Cuba, the Polisario launched a war for independence against Morocco, (and Mauritania, until 1979). In 1991 the parties agreed to a UN-brokered ceasefire, which was supposed to be followed by a referendum of the population of Western Sahara to determine its future.
The referendum has never taken place because Morocco and the Polisario have not been able to come to an agreement on who has the right to participate in a vote.
In April 2007, the Moroccan government presented an autonomy plan for governing the area based on the Spanish autonomy model applied in places like Catalonia. The U.S. and France both voiced support for it, as did the U.S. Congress. Under the Obama administration, however, the U.S. shifted its position to one of increased support for the Polisario, driving U.S.-Moroccan relations to a low point.
In the meantime, the Western Sahara has been the site of repeated riots and other acts of mayhem sponsored by the Polisario against Morocco. In 2005, the Polisario referred to its operations as its “Independence Intifadah,” along the lines of the Palestinian terror war against Israel.
Today, the Polisario controls some 20 percent of the territory of Western Sahara along its border with Algeria. Its training camps are based around the Algerian city of Tindouf, across the border with both the Western Sahara and Morocco. In 2010, the group organized mass demonstrations that it placed in the framework of the so-called Arab Spring.
In 2016, following Iran’s windfall profits from the nuclear deal, Iran stepped up its offensive operations both in the Middle East and worldwide. One of the hubs of its new efforts was North Africa. Specifically, in November 2016, both through its Lebanese Hezbollah foreign legion and through its diplomatic networks, Iran began sponsoring the Polisario. These operations were massively increased last year.
In March 2017, Morocco arrested Hezbollah financial kingpin Kasseem Tajideen in response to an Interpol arrest warrant issued by the organization’s Washington, DC, office. The Moroccans extradited Tajideen to the United States in May. The U.S. Treasury Department designated Tajideen as a global terrorist in 2009 due to his financial operations on behalf of Hezbollah. Those operations involve massive laundering of funds to Hezbollah through front companies in West Africa.
Bourita told Breitbart News that while the U.S., Israel, and other allies view Hezbollah as mainly a military threat, the Iranian proxy’s operations are far from limited to terrorist and military efforts. In North and West Africa, Hezbollah runs massive financial operations on behalf of Iran. These serve as a means to finance Iran’s global operations.
“You see Hezbollah as a military threat. In Africa we see it also as an economic threat. This Mr. Tajideen who was captured in Morocco was laundering money in Africa. All the benefits to Iran from Hezbollah are being reinvested in Africa. They are buying hotels, supermarkets. So don’t underestimate what Iran is doing in sub Saharan Africa also through financial actions.
“This gentleman [Tajideen], why was he important? He was linking Iran and Hezbollah and sub-Saharan Africa, West Africa in particular. For the United States he was a big fish because he knows the modus operandi for all of these operations. How the money was flowing and invested and coming back.”
As Breitbart News reported in May, beginning in November 2016 – one month before Morocco reinstated diplomatic relations with Iran — a Hezbollah delegation backed and directed by Amir Mousavi, the Iranian cultural attaché at the Iranian Embassy in Algiers, visited Polisario training camps in Tindouf, Algeria.
Bourita provided Breitbart News with a document detailing the vast contacts that have ensued between Hezbollah and Polisario Front commanders in Beirut and in Algeria since.
Following Tajideen’s arrest in Morocco in April 2017, Iran and Hezbollah escalated their involvement with the Polisario. Speaking with Fox News in May, Bourita revealed that Morocco had received documentation showing Iran had begun providing direct military assistance to the Polisario Front through Hezbollah.
Specifically, Hezbollah operatives in Tindouf delivered SAM-9 and SAM-11 surface-to-air missiles to Polisario Front training camps. These are sophisticated missiles, capable — among other things — of shooting down civilian jetliners. They are a step up from the more primitive SAM-7 (Strela) surface-to-air missiles, which have been the weapon of choice for Middle Eastern terror groups for decades.
Following Morocco’s discovery, Bourita flew to Tehran to confront the regime with Morocco’s documentation of the weapons shipments. Rabat chose to cut off its relations with Iran on May 1 after Bourita’s interlocutor refused to accept his evidence or commit to ending Iran’s sponsorship of the Polisario.
./..
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