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Officials from Libya, Algeria and Tunisia agreed during a meeting in Algiers last month, on the sidelines of the Gas Exporting Countries Summit, that the three North African countries should hold talks every three months to foster partnership and co-operation.
Algeria’s President Abdelmajid Tebboune and the President of Libya’s Presidential Council, Mohamed Al Menfi, held a talk in Tunis recently at the invitation of Tunisia’s President Kais Saied. The two leaders and their accompanying delegations were welcomed by Mr Saied at the Tunis Carthage International Airport.
Officials from Libya, Algeria and Tunisia agreed during a meeting in Algiers last month, on the sidelines of the Gas Exporting Countries Summit, that the three North African countries should hold talks every three months to foster partnership and co-operation.
The plan, which seeks to revive of the role of the Arab Maghreb Union, has been criticised as it does not involve Morocco and Mauritania – the two other members of the regional bloc established in 1989.
Mr Tebboune rejected the criticism in an interview with state television this month, saying it was “unacceptable” to isolate anyone in the Maghreb region. The bloc has suffered several setbacks over the years because of political and diplomatic feuds between its member states, mainly Algeria and Morocco.
According to Mohamed Zakaria Abou Dhahab, a professor of international studies at Rabat’s Mohamed V University, the tripartite meeting in Tunis could mark the end of the Arab Maghreb Union bloc, which has been “broken” for years.
Algeria cut diplomatic ties with Morocco in August 2021 after accusing Rabat of backing terrorist groups who allegedly started the deadly wildfires in the country’s north-east that year.Relations between the two countries have been strained by Algeria’s perceived support for a decades-old separatist movement in a Moroccan region.Algeria has no ambassador in Morocco and its embassy’s role is limited to providing consular services for its citizens there.
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Tunisia’s diplomatic ties with Morocco have also been in crisis after it invited the leader of the separatist group to the eighth Tokyo International Conference of African Development, held in Tunis in 2022. Morocco immediately withdrew from the event, condemning Mr. Saied for what it called “a stab in the back”.
