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Rabat – Libya has closed the door on Algeria’s hostile attempts to exclude Morocco from a revamped Maghreb Union project.
Visiting the Moroccan capital Rabat on Tuesday, a Libyan representative from the Libyan Presidential Council carried a written message to King Mohammed VI from the President of the council Mohamed Yunus al Menfi.
Ambassador Abu Bakr Ibrahim al Taweel, the acting charge d’affaires of the Libyan embassy in Morocco, told the press that the meeting aimed to reaffirm the uniquely fraternal and increasingly improving relations between Libya and Morocco.
He also expressed Libya’s gratitude to Morocco for its steadfast and constant support for the Libyan cause as the country strives to emerge from a decade-long political crisis, stressing Rabat’s effective contribution to the settlement of the Libyan crisis.
Over the past few years, Morocco has been deeply involved in the Libyan political process as a mediator between the parties and has been instrumental in the organization of several meetings to enable the Libyan parties to discuss an agreed political process to end the conflict.
The kingdom has notably stressed the need to find an inter-Libyan solution and decried any foreign intervention in the Libyan reconciliation process, that only Libyans should come together to discuss their country’s future and agree on a roadmap for a general election that helps lay the groundwork for a genuine, workable way out of the decade-long crisis.
Morocco’s stance and efforts to make such an outcome possible have been applauded by both Libyan officials and UN diplomats familiar with the Libyan crisis.
Abdoulaye Bathily, the UN Envoy for Libya, has consistently hailed Moroccan initiatives for genuinely seeking to help Libyans find a consensus to end their country’s descent into chaos after the collapse of the Khaddafi regime.
Speaking on Tuesday in Rabat, the Libyan ambassador noted that the Libyan Presidential Council’s visit was meant to showcase his country’s belief that any genuine initiative to cultivate solidarity in the Maghreb and foster cooperation and shared prosperity should involve all the countries of the region.
Moroccan news agency MAP quoted a source close to the Libyan Presidential Council as reiterating Libya’s rejection of any attempt aimed at creating an alternative framework to replace the old Arab Maghreb Union.
Read also: Algeria and Tunisia Pursue Maghreb Union ‘Dream,’ Exclude Morocco From Talks
The Libyan envoy stressed the urgent need to strengthen the regional entity founded in 1989 in Marrakech by the five countries of the region, MAP reported.
These statements come mere days after Algeria and Tunisia orchestrated a meeting with Libyan representatives to deliberate on the future of a stagnated Maghreb project that excludes Morocco.
Last week, Tunisia’s presidency office announced that Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune would be arriving in Tunis on Monday to participate in a “consultative meeting” with Tunisian and Libyan representatives.
Tellingly, this statement from the Tunisian presidency did not name Mauritania and Morocco among the participants of what it presented as a critical, highly strategic meeting to discuss a future of heightened integration and stronger ties among Maghreb countries.
Algeria has consistently called for the revival of the Maghreb Union project against the background of simmering political tensions in the region, especially the Algerian regime’s interference in the internal affairs of its neighbors.
Algerian President Tebboune had earlier shrugged off mockery and criticism of his apparent intention to create a regional organization without Morocco, a key and integral player in the region.
In particular, the Algerian president had claimed that the door was open to any country in the region that wished to engage in discussions to revitalize the long-standing dream of a Maghreb Union.
Yet Monday’s meeting in Tunis does suggest that Morocco is not welcome in Algeria’s vision of a united and prosperous Maghreb.
At the same time, however, Libya’s stance suggests that not everyone at Monday’s meeting in Tunis is on board with Algeria’s curious push to exclude Morocco from a regional union it helped create and inspire decades ago.
These developments all take place against a background of surging anti-Morocco in Algiers.
Late last week, the Algerian regime prevented Moroccan club RS Berkane from playing a CAF Confederation Cup game in Algeria due to the team’s jerseys featuring an undivided map of Morocco.
On Tuesday this week, the Algerian U-17 team boycotted the Arab Championship by withdrawing from a match against Morocco in protest of the Moroccan team wearing a jersey with a full map of Morocco.
For observers, this extreme politicization of sports is the Algerian regime’s newfound approach to smearing Morocco and reaffirming its support for the Polisario Front’s separatist aspirations in southern Morocco.
