Former UN Diplomat Launches Bold Peace Initiative to Thaw Morocco-Algeria Tensions

At the helm of this mediation attempt is Jamal Benomar, former United Nations Under-Secretary-General. The former diplomat, who has already played the role of facilitator during the Gulf crisis involving Qatar, is acting this time as president of the International Center for Dialogue Initiative. He has surrounded himself with a group of international civil society actors to carry out this project.

The initiative’s assessment is clear-cut: the Sahara issue remains the main stumbling block between the two regional powers. According to its promoters, the inability to address this issue within a Maghreb framework and its judicialization on the international stage have durably poisoned relations. They warn that the current escalation, whatever the reasons, "mortgages the future of the other countries in the region".

In the current situation, the best-case scenario would be a simple freezing of the crisis, estimate the initiators, who point to the existence of much more worrying scenarios. The objective is therefore to break the "wall of silence". The initiative claims to want to give a voice to the "silent majority", supposedly in favor of the Maghreb Union, but whose wish is eclipsed by the virulence of the discourses of rupture and hatred.