Algeria to send minister to invite Moroccan king to Arab summit

Algerian President Abdulmadjid Tebboune is to send his country’s Justice Minister, Abdul Rashid Tabbi, to Rabat to hand over a personal invitation for Morocco’s King Mohammed VI to attend the Arab League summit scheduled to be held in Algiers in November.

“As part of the preparation of the upcoming Arab Summit, the Algerian authorities have decided to send several emissaries to Arab capitals, carrying invitations to all heads of state of Arab League members,” said the Algerian authorities.

According to a press release from Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, the Algerian Minister of Justice will visit Rabat after Riyadh and Amman. “It is in this context that the Algerian Minister of Justice will be received in Morocco,” said the ministry.

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The move cuts short expectations that the summit will be delayed by Algeria’s initial refusal to send an invitation to Morocco.

Nevertheless, Morocco World News reported government sources as hinting that Algeria’s sending of an official to Morocco will not affect the country’s stance on its tense relations with Rabat. The dispatching of a senior official to the Moroccan monarch is simply a “moral obligation and a political duty,” as hosting the Arab League summit “requires treating all member states on an equal footing,” sources told Algerian newspaper Echourouk Online.