During his upcoming visit to Washington, Moroccan Monarch King Mohammed VI will not be carrying purely Moroccan concerns, but rather Maghreb and African aspirations that will be the main focus of the summit he will hold with President Barack Obama. This is due to the fact that he is the White House's first guest among the leaders of the Maghreb, since the transformations induced by the Arab spring that shook the structures of the region. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge of the Maghreb-European dialogue, but this is the first time that the American stop is seen, in light of Washington's preoccupation with the rearrangement of the situation in North Africa and the Middle East as a connected sequence. The support of democratic transition, development, and stability will constitute an important axis during the Moroccan-American summit, in addition to subsequent files and issues that are sweeping the region and provoking the disgruntlement of the Americans. Indeed, the latter are focusing on security matters and the war on terrorism more than they are on the settlement of political crises which could either be contained or escalate. They left this up to the concerned sides, namely the European partners of North Africa, believing that if the European neighbors have failed – neighbors for whom the North African region is a traditional area of influence – America should not rush into this arena before the right moment. The American Democrats are avoiding any competitions deep within the European space, thus allowing the French in particular to celebrate their military intervention in Mali until the time comes to reap greater benefits. And there is nothing better for them than the prevalence of the Arab spring to reproduce the maps. The American-Maghreb partnership plan known as the Eisenstat initiative - named after Secretary Eisenstat – has not lost its momentum. Prior to the fall of the regime of Colonel Gaddafi, the Libyan situation constituted an obstacle before its ratification. But today, it appears to have become closer to reality, in case security and stability are instated. Hence, the only obstacle appears to reside in the tensions affecting Moroccan-Algerian relations, which are not generating an encouraging atmosphere pushing the American wager to open up to Africa to seek ways in through the northern gate of the southern part of the Mediterranean Sea. The transient crisis between Rabat and Washington has become a thing of the past. It even carried positive effects, as it allowed the resumption of dialogue between the two allied countries based on understanding and harmony. At this level, the American administration never backed down on the imposition of a suggestion as it did with the expansion of MINURSO's prerogatives in the Sahara, after it realized that the resolution of the conflict can only be achieved through the support of the political solution. And it is now up to the negotiations mechanism and the monitoring of the situation to prevent the boiling content of the cup from overflowing. In addition, the administration succumbed to the logic of the United Nations, which means there is no other alternative for this direction. Consequently, all that the Moroccan monarch can ask of the Americans is to sustain their commitment in regard to this issue, while all the Americans want is to see North Africa free from the tensions that are benefitting extremist movements and terrorist organizations. This is why the summit is being staged under one headline, i.e. the preservation of stability. At the peak of the Cold War, Morocco and Algeria reached a formula that is shockingly paradoxical in international relations. At the time, Rabat and the Soviet Union sealed what was dubbed the "deal of the century" to provide the red giant with phosphate and its derivatives, while maintaining its loyalty to the Western camp. Algiers, on the other hand, sealed agreements to pump oil and gas into American factories and homes, while maintaining Kremlin's political influence. Now that this is behind us, the relations of strategic balance between the two countries are being made in the Western capitals, in a way that does not bother any of the two sides. Furthermore, the competition over strategic partnership with Washington has become a fait accompli, one to which Washington responded in a way guaranteeing its political, economic, commercial and strategic interests. No one cares that this partnership will be at the Europeans' expense, as there is an understanding over greater balance. And while the European partners settled for coexisting with the crises in the region – while preserving the mechanisms of political, economic and security dialogue represented by the 5+5 Dialogue between the northern and southern states of the Mediterranean Sea – why would the Americans deploy extra efforts to end distant crises? It is from the North African neighboring areas that the alarming concerns are surfacing, i.e. the security challenges facing the Sahel, south of the Sahara. This pushed the Americans to place some of their weight and achieve what the neighboring states were unable to. And what is certain is that Moroccan-American dialogue over this issue will be critical, as it is linked to the signs of anarchy and emerging threats, against the backdrop of the arms smuggling operations and the search by extremist organizations for safe havens. This will hopefully lead to the tackling of the most complicated files, rendering the summit one that includes the Maghreb and Africa, not to forget the Arab dimension, as long as the entire region is governed by equations related to the balances of the loose perspective of the expression Middle East and North Africa.
