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Algeria’s Minister of Justice Abderrachid Tebbi arrived in Rabat on Tuesday to extend an invitation to Morocco for the Arab League summit which will take place in Algeria this November.
Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs received the Algerian minister in Rabat on Tuesday. The reception was on the instructions of King Mohammed VI.
“The envoy of the Algerian President handed over a letter of invitation addressed to his majesty King Mohammed VI… to attend the work of the Arab Summit to be held in Algeria on November 1-2, 2022,” Morocco’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement.
The invitation comes amid tense diplomatic relations between Rabat and Algiers.
In August 2021, Algeria cut all diplomatic ties with its western neighbor, accusing Morocco of undermining Algeria’s stability. The Algerian regime blamed Morocco for wildfires triggered by rising temperatures that hit Algeria last year.
Morocco denied all accusations, describing them as fallacious, and expressed regret over Algeria’s decision to cut diplomatic ties with Rabat. The Moroccan government argued that it will always remain a credible partner for the Algerian people, despite the decision.
The cut of diplomatic ties due to the wildfire allegations was merely one episode in the ongoing Algeria-Morocco diplomatic tension. Algeria has been financing, hosting, arming, and backing the Polisario Front — a separatist group claiming independence in Western Sahara – for decades.
Despite its logistical support for the Polisario Front, Algeria’s regime denies its responsibility as a primary party in the dispute over Western Sahara and refuses to take part in the UN-led political process to find a mutually acceptable solution to end the disagreement.
On Monday at the UN General Assembly, Algeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ramtane Lamamra appealed for the resumption of the UN-led political process for Western Sahara.
However, the Algerian official conveyed his country’s reluctance to engage as a main party in the process of the UN-led mediation talks.
The Algerian regime made a similar statement earlier this month during the visit of UN General Secretary’s Personal Envoy for Western Sahara Staffan de Mistura to Algiers.
During a meeting with de Mistura, Lamamra confirmed Algeria’s decision to decline its participation in potential UN roundtables on Western Sahara.
Algeria also refuses to engage in a frank and direct dialogue with Morocco, despite King Mohammed VI’s dialogue offers.
The latest dialogue offer was in July when the King renewed his initiative and said that Morocco is ready to work with the Algerian presidency to establish “normal relations between the two brotherly peoples.”
For the monarch, the closure of borders separating Moroccans and Algerians will “never be barriers preventing their interaction and understanding.”
He also reassured Moroccans that Morocco will “find a way out of the current situation and to promote rapprochement, communication, and understanding,” between Algiers and Rabat.
