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A week after the April 22 meeting in Tunis between Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, the Algerian news agency APS published announced the death of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), launched on February 17, 1989 in Marrakech. The official news agency blames the regional bloc's demise on Morocco.
«Today, all African countries are organized into regional communities except North Africa, because of Morocco, which has favored alliances with the Zionist entity» and «by inviting itself into other organic structures in the Middle East», wrote the Algerian news agency referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council.
In an interview with Algerian media on March 30, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune defended excluding Morocco from the new Maghreb bloc project, stating: «Our Western neighbors wish to join the West African Development Organization (ECOWAS), and they are free to do so».
APS even refers to an official Moroccan request dating back to 1995, calling for suspension from the Union's bodies, but taking care to gloss over its real motivations.
Attaf and APS gloss over the reasons behind Morocco's 1995 request
Indeed, the request was an act of protest against Algeria's violations, through its support for the Polisario, of the provisions of the Maghreb Arab Union's constitutive act, notably article 15: «Member States undertake not to permit on their respective territories any activity or organization prejudicial to the security, territorial integrity or political system of any of the Member States. They also undertake to refrain from joining any pact, or military or political alliance, which would be directed against the political independence or territorial unity of the other member states», the same text states.
On August 29, 2023, during a press briefing in Algiers, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Attaf, mentioned the Moroccan request of 1995, asserting that «Algeria bears no responsibility for the stalemate in the Arab Maghreb Union. Since then, circumstances have not changed. Worse still, they have worsened. Today, it's difficult to talk of reviving or breathing new life into the Arab Maghreb Union in the context we all know». The Minister made no mention of the causes that forced Morocco to call for the freezing of the AMU 29 years ago.
APS' article comes at a time when Algeria's Maghreb project without Morocco is floundering. Libya, which attended the Tunis summit, is stepping up its calls to strengthen the Arab Maghreb Union. Twenty-four hours after the tripartite meeting in the Tunisian capital, the President of the Libyan Presidential Council, Mohammed Younès El-Menfi, sent a message to King Mohammed VI to this effect.
The following day, it was the turn of Hussein Atiya El Katrani, First Vice-President of the Government of National Unity (recognized by the international community) and Minister of Agriculture, to reiterate the same appeal at a meeting in Rabat with the Secretary General of the AMU, the Tunisian Taïeb Baccouche. On April 24, the President of the Libyan Presidential Council also sent a written message on the same subject to the President of Mauritania. Despite Algerian pressure, the southern neighbor has so far refused to join the Maghreb project without Morocco.
