Algeria Seeks to Reshape Maghreb Union, Excluding Morocco

Tensions between Morocco and Algeria are escalating day by day. The two neighboring countries have maintained a rivalry that has lasted for about thirty years, with the Sahara issue as the backdrop. Algeria’s new project against Morocco is to create a Maghreb consultation framework without the kingdom. "The Arab Maghreb Union is in a coma. Should we resign ourselves to this situation until the UMA comes back to life? The answer is no," Ahmed Attaf, the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, recently declared to justify the validity of this project.

This crucible aims to "fill the void" of a UMA that only exists in name, the Algerian president explained in a press statement, indicating that Tunisia and Libya have already joined this project "which is not directed against any other state in the region," an allusion to Morocco. To recall, the UMA, founded in 1989 in Marrakech by Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Mauritania, has ceased to function for years. Its last summit dates back to 1994. Thus, only Mauritania remains to be convinced to definitively exclude Morocco from this "new Maghreb dynamic," in the words of Sébastian Boussois, professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles.

For the moment, President Tebboune has not yet managed to convince his Mauritanian counterpart, Mohamed Cheikh Ould El Ghazouani, to join the project. But Mauritania could end up giving in, says El Confidencial, recalling that Algeria maintains good relations with this country. The two leaders recently inaugurated customs offices and announced the construction of a 840-kilometer road linking Tindouf to the mining town of Zouerat. Meanwhile, the Mauritanian customs had increased in January the customs tariffs on fruits and vegetables exported by Morocco via Guerguerat, creating a crisis between the two countries.

According to the Spanish media, Algeria is trying to exclude Morocco from this integration project for two reasons. The first is that Morocco is the only Maghreb country to maintain relations with Israel, calling into question regional cohesion. The second is that Algiers is seeking to block King Mohammed VI’s initiative to facilitate access to the Atlantic for Sahel countries (Mali, Niger, Chad and Burkina Faso) via the port of Dakhla. "Unlike what Morocco is proposing, this project (the road between Tindouf and Zouerat, ed.) is not utopian, because Algeria has the financial means to carry it out," analyzes TSA Algérie.