Eastern Libya’s FM rejects Algeria’s regional maneuvers

The Algerian scheme to bury the Arab Maghreb Union and replace it with a union with cash-strapped Tunisia and Tripoli government was met with strong rejection by eastern Libya’s foreign minister Abdulhadi Lahouij.

Tebboune said last week he agreed with Tunisia’s Kais Said and the head of Tripoli’s presidential council Mohammed Menfi to create a new Maghreb entity.

“The Maghreb region does not need the creation of new entities, because we have existing institutions that need to be reactivated and reinforced,” Lahoouij told Moroccan news portal Hespress.

“Libya, which currently chairs the Arab Maghreb Union, remains attached to this institution and is willing to strengthen cooperation between Maghreb countries, whose trade volume remains low compared to other regional blocs,” he said.

Tebboune, in an interview last week, defended the new regional grouping with Kais Saied and El Menfi. He argued that the region was the least integrated in Africa and that the AMU was inefficient.

Tebboune even said that “neighbors in the West”- meaning Morocco and Mauritania- are free to join the “new entity.”

Nowhere had Tebboune mentioned the real causes that left the Maghreb union one of the least integrated groups in Africa.

Algeria has backed separatism in Morocco for nearly five decades, armed and instigated a separatist militia against Morocco, cut ties with Rabat and banned all Moroccan aircrafts from crossing its airspace and prevents any trade including transshipment through Moroccan ports. However, its president shamelessly dares to speak about a Maghreb Union in lethargy!!

Worst! Tebboune rebuked Morocco for seeking to join ECOWAS and for its strong ties with the Gulf saying “Rabat did not consult” Algiers!

Since its independence, Morocco defended the Maghreb option and hosted in February 1989 the summit marking the creation of the Arab Maghreb Union.

King Mohammed VI in his speeches underscores the centrality of the Maghreb in Morocco’s foreign policy and extends an open arms policy towards Algeria, calling for opening borders and for regional integration. All these calls fell on deaf Algerian ears.

In seeking to isolate Morocco at all costs, Algeria has been taking self-harming decisions that ended up isolating itself.