Rabat Responds To Algeria’s Initiative

Morocco confirmed on Monday that it had no objection to the AMU Foreign Ministers’ meeting after the request that was submitted by Algeria, but linked its success to the existing direct dialogue between the two countries.

This came in a statement that was issued by the Moroccan Foreign Minister after a meeting between the Minister Nasser Bourita and the Algerian Ambassador.

According to the statement, “Morocco has no objection in principle to a meeting of the Foreign Ministers’ Council of the Arab Maghreb Union, but the Kingdom has reacted positively with the proposal that was made by Tunisia to hold a meeting of the five Maghreb Foreign Ministers”.

“However, Morocco can only wonder about the ability of this 35th ministerial meeting to reach tangible results that are different from the previous 34 meetings, in the absence of a good preparation and direct responsible dialogue between two member states of the Arab Maghreb Union”.

The Moroccan Foreign Ministry once again linked the stalemate to the strained relationships between the two countries by saying that “the situation of stagnation that is known by the Arab Maghreb Union for years is due mainly to the extraordinary nature of the Moroccan-Algerian relationships, which can only be dealt with in the context of bilateral and direct dialogue without intermediaries”.