Mohammed VI Announces The Maghreb Union's “Death”

King Mohammed VI of Morocco hinted, on Tuesday, at the end of the Maghreb Union as a regional block after 28 years of its creation, “in the absence of a belief in our common destiny”, and that after days of the statement that was made by Abdelkader Messahel yet, for a forthcoming meeting next month,of the Moroccan Foreign Ministers to discuss its reactivation.

Mohammed VI said, in a speech at the African Summit conclusion works: “It is clear, that the flame of the Arab Maghreb Union has been extinguished, in light of the absence of faith in a common destiny, as the dream of the Maghreb which was the fight of the pioneers in the the fifties of the last century, is currently subject to betrayal”.

“It is deplorable to see that the Maghreb Union is today the region that is less integrated in the African continent, if not in the whole world, at a time when business transactions reaches up to 10% between the countries of the Economic Community of West African States, and 19% between the countries of southern African development Community, as these trade-offs represent less than 3% between the Maghreb countries. Citizens in the Maghreb countries do not understand the situation”.

“If we do not move, or take the lesson from the neighboring African gatherings, the Arab Maghreb Union would be dissolved due to its chronic inability to respond to the ambitions that were set by the founding Treaty of Marrakech, since 28 years ago”.

Minister of Maghreb, African and Arab Affairs, Abdelkader Messahel, announced, days ago in an interview with Echorouk News Channel, on the forthcoming meeting of the Maghreb Countries’ Foreign Ministers, that will be held in Tunisia next February, to discuss the reactivation of the Union.

“Algeria agrees with the re-founding of the organization and reconsidering the structure of this regional bloc to adapt it to the changes that are taking place in the world and in the region”.

“I asked the General-Secretary of the Maghreb Union, during an earlier meeting, to prepare a comprehensive vision on the project to discuss it during the next meeting”.

Messahel refused to blame any party for the rigidity of the Union, asserting that Algeria has undertaken several efforts to this bloc.

“At the infrastructure level, there is the highway that links the Moroccan-Tunisian border, and there is the transit highway in the Sahara (Algeria, Lagos), and there are 200 km that remain incomplete at the level of Niger, and this reflects the Algerian efforts to integrate in the union”.

“Algeria is the first to speak of the economic integration, as an alternative to overcome the political difficulties”.