Rabat – The leader of Algeria’s Movement of Society for Peace party (MSP), Abderazak Makr, has called for excluding Morocco from the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) project.
Speaking on Saturday, February 27, the head of the main Algerian Islamist party followed in the footsteps of Rached Ghannouchi, the head of the Tunisian Islamist party Ennahdha, who has also pleaded for UMA to exclude Morocco.
“It is imperative to exclude Morocco from the AMU, since it has brought the Zionist enemy [Israel] to our borders and we no longer trust them,” Makr said at a press conference on Satruday.
The Algerian politician echoed Ghannouchi’s sentiments regarding the way forward for Maghrebi solidarity.
Earlier this month, the Tunisian Islamist leader urged Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya to “open the borders between the three countries, to launch a common currency and to develop an agricultural and industrial partnership in the framework of a common market between them.”
Read also: Morocco Exposes Polisario, Algeria’s Propaganda in Letter to UN
Ghannouchi argued that solidifying relations between the three countries could be the first step towards “ relaunching the dream of the Arab Maghreb Union.” He also appeared to suggest the Algeria-Libya-Tunisia triangle would help resolve Tunisia’s and the region’s ongoing economic and social woes.
As they called for the creation of a united Maghrebi front to solve common political and economic challenges, both Makr and Ghannouchi seemed to sideline Morocco’s well-documented efforts to foster Maghrebi solidarity.
Despite a deep-seated and increasingly festering rivalry with Algeria, Morocco has long advocated for reconciliation and dialogue.
“We are optimistic and hopeful that we can work for the fulfilment of Maghreb peoples’ aspirations for unity, complementarity and integration,” King Mohammed VI said in his 2019 Throne Day speech.
Despite Morocco’s best efforts for Maghrebi solidarity, Algeria has pushed for an all-out media war, attempting to tarnish the country’s reputation on the global stage.
Meanwhile, Tunisia’s former President, Moncef Marzouki, said recently that the Algeria-backed separatist Polisario Frontis the main reason for the failure of the “United Maghreb” project.
“You know to what extent I am a Maghrebian and I seek to advance this project. But it is clear that there are forces determined to abort it,” Marzouki said in November 2020.
“Whenever we proceed and find a reasonable solution to the [Western Sahara] problem… certain forces carry out some kind of terrorist strikes to prevent this,” Marzouki explained, referring to the Polisario Front.
