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Nouakchott’s emissary has been touring the Maghreb region for two weeks now. On Monday, the Mauritanian official visited Morocco, carrying a message from President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
The Minister of Culture and Handicrafts and the government spokesman Mohamed Ould Maham, who is also chairman of the Union for the Republic (UPR), was received Tuesday by Prince Moulay Rachid. He handed the Prince a message from the Mauritanian President to King Mohammed VI.
But before flying to Morocco, the Mauritanian Minister visited Algeria and Tunisia last week. In the Algerian capital, Ould Maham met on February the 19th Algeria’s Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia. Three days later, he was received at the Carthage Palace by the Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebssi.
ISESCO and the Arab Maghreb Union
In neighboring capitals, Ould Maham delivered messages sent by Mohamed Ould Abde Aziz. The content of these letters was not revealed. However, the Mauritanian official’s tour in the Maghreb suggests that Nouakchott is trying to revive the Arab Maghreb Union, an economic and future political unity among Arab countries of the Maghreb in North Africa.
This comes as Mauritania had offered, before, to host the Arab Maghreb Union's Foreign Affairs Ministers upcoming meeting.
Mauritanian media, however, suggested that Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz’ letters to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia are related to the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), one of the largest international Islamic organizations and specializes in the fields of education, science and culture.
For the record, Mauritania has submitted a bid to chair the organization headquartered in Rabat. This comes as Saudi Arabia’s Abdulaziz Othman Al-Twaijri, who has been heading ISESCO since 1991, is leaving the organization.
Ould Maham’s tour in the Maghreb region comes four weeks before the Arab League holds a summit in Tunis in March. Mauritanians, and just like Tunisians, want to seize this opportunity to convince Maghreb countries to work on reviving the regional union.
Mauritania is the only state in the region to maintain good political and economic relations with the other components of the Arab Maghreb Union, particularly Morocco and Algeria.
