Tunisia Foreign Minister: Efforts being made to end Morocco-Algeria dispute

Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Al-Jhinaoui has said his country is making special efforts to end the conflict between Algeria and Morocco, as well as other regional disputes.

Al-Jhinaoui made the announcement on his official Facebook page earlier this week, adding:

Tunisia has proposed specific dates for organising a closed consultative meeting, far from the media spotlight, between the foreign ministers of the five Maghreb countries to support efforts to activate the institutions of the Maghreb Union.

Al-Jhinaoui went on to say: “I think the initiative of His Majesty King Mohammed VI of Morocco, the statements of our brothers in Algeria and diplomacy movements can contribute to the activation of Maghreb relations, bilaterally and collectively, and the settling of old differences between the two brother states, the Republic of Algeria and the Kingdom of Morocco.”

On 6 November, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI called on Algeria to set up a joint committee to discuss outstanding contentious issues, including closed borders.

Several days later, the Algerian Foreign Ministry called for a meeting of Arab Maghreb Union foreign ministers to be held “as soon as possible,” to discuss the re-establishment of the regional bloc.

The Algerian statement did not include an explicit response to the Moroccan monarch’s call, prompting Rabat to call on Algeria to officially announce its response to the Moroccan initiative on Monday.

The Arab Maghreb Union was formed in 1989 and includes Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Tunisia and Mauritania.

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