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Rabat – Algeria is set to send “a special envoy” to deliver an invitation to King Mohammed VI for the Arab League Summit that will take place in Algiers in November, an Algerian news outlet reported on Tuesday.
TSA, one of Algeria’s leading and reliable francophone news sources, said in its report that Algeria will invite “all Arab countries to take part in this summit, including Morocco.”
Diplomatic relations between the two countries have been marked with tensions over Algeria’s continued financial and logistical support to the Polisario Front, the separatist group claiming independence in Morocco’s southern provinces.
The historically tense relationship between the two neighbors further deteriorated last year after Algeria announced its decision to “sever all relations” with Morocco. Algeria notably closed its airspace to flights from Morocco, accusing its western neighbor of undermining Algerian interests, stability, and security.
‘A moral obligation’
While the past months have seen tensions between the two countries either exacerbate or remain at their usual high, Algerian government sources told TSA that a minister will “be appointed to deliver the invitation to Morocco” to participate in the Arab league.
“The name of this minister and the date of his trip to Rabat has not yet been set,” the news outlet said, adding that its sources ruled out that Algeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister Ramtane Lamamra will be the one to travel to Rabat to extend his country’s special invitation.
Algeria has already delivered invitations to several heads of state, including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egypt’s President Abdelfattah Al Sissi.
Echourouk Online, an Algerian news outlet close to the country’s ruling elite, published a similar news report on Tuesday, saying Algeria considers sending a “special envoy to the Kingdom of Morocco” as “a moral obligation and a political duty which requires treating all Member States on an equal footing.”
The move is not “linked to bilateral relations, but to multilateral relations,” Echourouk Online added, hinting that the Algerian government’s special invitation to the Moroccan King will not affect Algiers’ professed unwillingness to de-escalate tensions with Rabat.
Read Also: Moroccan FM: Arab Solidarity Requires Mutual Respect for Territorial Integrity
The news of a potential Algerian “special invitation” to Morocco comes on the heels of the Arab League Council in Cairo, where Morocco’s top diplomat on Tuesday appeared to take a swipe at Algeria’s continued challenge to Morocco’s territorial integrity.
The next Arab Summit has to take place on a “foundation of responsibility and [steer] away from any narrow calculations or outdated logic,” said the Moroccan Foreign Minister, stressing that Arab solidarity requires mutual trust and mutual respect for Arab League members’ territorial integrity.
A key obstacle standing in the way of the dream of Arab solidarity is the lack of a shared and clear Arab vision to tackle common challenges, Nasser Bourita argued, concluding: “It is time to put in place strong foundations for an integrated Arab partnership aiming to improve the tools of common Arab action.”
