HIBAPRESS – Yassin Al-Dhamiri
The working meeting chaired by King Mohammed VI regarding the Nador West Med port project was not an isolated technical event, but a political and economic moment par excellence, which confirms once again that Morocco is steadily moving forward in the option of quiet construction and long-term work, no matter how loud the voices of disruption rise from here or there.
The new port is not just a sea dock or absorptive figures, but an embodiment of a deep royal vision aimed at linking the national economy to global value chains, and transforming the geographical location of the Kingdom from a traditional crossing to a strategic node in trade, energy and industry.
Investments of approximately 51 billion dirhams, an industrial, logistical and energy platform, the first liquefied natural gas terminal, and activity areas extending over hundreds of hectares, all indicators that Morocco is not betting on slogans, but on tangible facts that change people's lives and redraw maps of economic influence.
Most importantly, this giant project targets eastern Morocco, a region that has been held hostage to marginalization for decades due to the closure of borders and unjustified hostility, to clearly announce that the Moroccan state has decided to turn the margin into a beating heart, and the closed borders into a gateway to prosperity.
On the other hand, and only hours after the Royal Court announced this strategic workshop, the Algerian Ministry of Defense issued a statement in which it announced the killing of three Moroccan citizens, describing them as armed smugglers, in an incident that raises more than one question mark, not only about the timing, but about the backgrounds and connotations.
The temporal coincidence between the two events cannot be innocent, because when Morocco succeeds in launching a project that will change the balances of development in the border region, and reveals the vast difference between a model that builds and a model that dissipates, the logic of blind revenge becomes a familiar language for a regime that only knows how to run forward.
The statement of the Algerian military, with its dry wording and ready justifications, reflects a security doctrine that sees the human being as an extra number, and the borders as a stage for display, instead of being an area for integration and cooperation as is the case in rational countries.
What is painful in the matter is that the victims, whatever the circumstances of the incident, remain isolated Moroccans who found themselves in a minefield of tension policies, victims of a dead end created by the rulers of the Muradia Palace with their stubbornness and their rejection of any logic of good neighborliness.
While Morocco chooses to invest in ports, roads, energy and job opportunities, Algeria chooses to invest in barricades and hostile rhetoric, and the constant search for an external enemy to justify internal chronic failure.
The Nador West Med port project will create a new reality on the ground, where the eastern border areas will be transformed into an economic attraction space, and a logistical and industrial center, providing hope for young people and breaking the logic of smuggling and despair.
And this is exactly what frightens the Kbaranat of the military, because the comparison will be harsh between a Moroccan paradise that is built with patience and planning, and opposite it by meters an Algerian hell made barren by corruption and mismanagement, between a country that bets on the future, and a regime stuck in the grip of the past.
The real response to these provocations is not to be drawn into the same logic, but to do more work and achievement, which Morocco has been doing for years, under the leadership of a king who has made development the first line of defense of sovereignty and stability.
History teaches us that ports are not only built to receive ships, but to establish new equations in power and prosperity, and the Nador port will be a witness that whoever sows development reaps respect, and whoever sows hatred reaps isolation.
The killing of Moroccan citizens in this painful context obliges public opinion to read the events deeply, not with fleeting emotion, and to realize that the real conflict today is between a state project and a barracks mood.
In the end, Morocco will remain committed to the option of construction, not concerned with provocations from those who cannot bear to see a neighbor advance, because the wheel of development, when it starts, is not stopped by military statements, nor is it deterred by the hatred of a regime that has chosen isolation instead of partnership.
In the end, Morocco continues to steadily make its way as a real paradise for development, not with speeches or illusions, but with major royal projects and long-term strategic visions, making each workshop a building block in building a modern state that knows what it wants and where it is going, from ports to energies, and from infrastructure to human capital, embodies the vision of a state that has chosen silent work instead of fruitless noise, and has linked development to sovereignty, stability and spatial justice.
This Moroccan model, based on anticipation, planning and clarity of goals, produces a new reality in the region, a reality in which the strength of states is measured by their ability to create opportunities, not to create enemies, and to ensure dignity for their citizens, not to drug them with slogans, it is a development policy that makes geography a lever, and time an ally, and trust in institutions the basis for continuity.
On the other hand, Algeria possesses huge wealth of gas and oil, which was supposed to make it a continental development model, but the authorities chose another path, the path of delusion and marketing of great promises, the Gar Jbilat was presented to the Algerian people as a gateway to living like the Qataris, Emiratis, Saudis and Americans, but the reality remained a prisoner of waiting, where the citizen only felt more disappointment and postponement of dreams.
Instead of focusing on building a productive economy and comprehensive development, the compass was directed outwards, and Morocco was made a constant obsession, so they rejoice at the defeat of a Moroccan team and grieve to see a road being built, or a port being completed, or a royal project seeing the light, as if the success of the neighbor has become a source of annoyance more than it is an opportunity for integration and cooperation and building a strong regional space.
And so, while the Moroccan caravan is confidently heading towards the future, the sound of barking and lamenting rises behind the borders, noise that does not stop a path nor impede fate, for history does not forgive those who chose enmity instead of development, nor does it reward those who have opposed success instead of making it, and Morocco is on its way, because those who build do not look back, and those who believe in their vision are not preoccupied with the envious.
