Moroccan and Algerian Leaders Urge Diplomatic Thaw in "Call of the Future" Initiative

The "Call of the Future" is an initiative carried by 100 Moroccan personalities including lawyer Naoufal Bouamri and community activist Hicham Snoussi, and Algerians including journalist Walid Kabir, president of the Maghreb Association for Peace, Cooperation and Development, and journalist Anouar Soulaimani, university researcher. "We address our call to people of good intentions who believe in the unity of a common destiny, with a view to gradually unraveling the problems," they said.

The initiators of the appeal call on the Algerian authorities to "take into account the human dimension of family relations, particularly on both sides of the border, and to allow severely psychologically affected families to have the right to exchange visits between them within the framework of the opening of a humanitarian passage for pedestrians allowing them to reconnect with each other and alleviate their suffering of more than a quarter of a century without being able to see each other again".

They also call for an end to hate speech relayed by "media that are subject to the narrow calculations of politics in the two countries" and call for "opening channels of dialogue between the elites of the two countries for a discussion without fanaticism or chauvinism" so that viable solutions are found to the problems that are destroying the fraternal and good neighborly relations between Morocco and Algeria.

"We consider that the humanitarian side can solve this situation and push to think about opening the borders for citizens on both sides," said Moroccan lawyer Naoufal Bouamri, one of the initiators of the appeal, as well as former ministers Abdelkarim Benatiq and Jamal Aghmani, and diplomatic advisor in Washington, Samir Bennis.