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While Maghreb countries are trying to reach a common ground to establish a political agreement, the Algerian Foreign Affairs Minister proposed to focus on economic integration. Abdelkader Messahel said he hopes to hold, on the sidelines of the 18th Maghreb Ministerial Committee on Food Safety held Thursday, in Tunis, an «informal meeting» with the Arab Maghreb Union representatives to address this project.
The Algerian Minister, who spoke Tuesday about his plan on Algerian radio station Radio III, defended the idea of having a common policy in the Maghreb region for agriculture and industry, reports Algerian press agency APS. He indicated that his country will «keep defending» this model to achieve regional integration.
Ignoring the border issue in the region
Messahel stressed that for Algeria, the Arab Maghreb Union is «a strategic choice and not just a slogan». «We did it and we will continue doing it because we believe that we have no other alternative solution to maintain regional integration», he added.
The Minister did not miss the opportunity to praise the «role» played by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika in trying to «revive» the regional organization. Speaking about economic integration, the Algerian Minister completely ignored the border issue between Morocco and Algeria.
Moreover, the approach suggested by Messahel is not a new one. The same idea was proposed in 2012 by Saadeddine El Othmani, who served as the Kingdom’s Foreign Affairs Minister at the time, while visiting Algeria. The idea was, however, rejected by Algerians.
This project cannot be achieved without opening land borders, separating Morocco and Algeria, and which have been closed since 1994. Messahel’s approach was made public as Maghreb countries are trying to pump new blood into the Arab Maghreb Union.
Mauritania is one of the five countries that has been trying recently to make that happen. The Mauritanian 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.
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.
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.
