Tunisian Bakouche Wears Black Robe To Woefully Defend Morocco’s Makhzen Regime

The failures of Tayeb Bakouche continue, who instead of using his efforts to carry out his duties as Secretary General of the Arab Maghreb Union, prefers to wear the black robe and plead for the interests of the Moroccan regime, forgetting that his duties are confined to multilateral relations and coordination between member states in implementing the decisions of the Council of Foreign Ministers, and not to interfere in bilateral relations that do not fall within his remit.
In his recent media appearance, Tayeb Bakouche tried to blame Algeria for the failure of this bloc, saying “We cannot build a great Maghreb union with closed borders or severed diplomatic relations”, adopting the same discourse promoted by officials in the Kingdom of Morocco to demonize Algeria.
The latter, who justified the halt in the implementation of the “Maghreb Train” project as a result of the closed borders, forgot to mention that Algeria is the only country to have concluded the largest number of agreements within the framework of the Maghreb Union and is considered to be the only country to have embodied on the ground all the structural projects programmed within this bloc, similar to the Maghreb motorway, where it has completed the part located on its territory, at a distance of more than 1,200 km.
At the end of 2010, it undertook the process of subscribing and paying its contributions to the capital of the Maghreb Bank for Investment and Foreign Trade, estimated at 7.5 million US dollars, with a view to launching the bank’s project.
As for the last move, which raised Algeria’s reservations regarding the appointment of an “ambassador for the Arab Maghreb” to the African Union, Bakouche said that he had received no official protest, while the Foreign Ministry issued an official statement expressing its rejection of the unilateral step taken by Tayeb Bakouche in coordination with the authorities of Morocco without consulting Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Mauritania.
Observers believe that Algeria’s failure to protest to Bakouche is mainly due to the vacancy of the post of Secretary General, as his term as head of the General Secretariat expired in July 2022 and it is therefore not possible to deal with him from the official authorities.
Diplomatic sources told Echorouk that the Moroccan Amina Salmane, recently appointed by Bakouche and Rabat to represent the Maghreb countries at the African Union, formally requested a meeting with the ambassadors of the member states, but she did not receive a positive response from all the diplomats accredited to Addis Ababa, expressing the lack of satisfaction of the Maghreb capitals with this irregular appointment.
Observers believe that Bakouche’s statements during his recent media exit about his encounter with so-called “obstacles and maneuvers” in his mission, is a pre-justification for his withdrawal and handing over the keys to the General Secretariat of the Union, although some have reservations about this reading, because the privileges that you get in Rabat from a luxury villa with a swimming pool and a new car, may have decisive influence on his final decision.