#Rabat #special #envoy #Libyan #president #responds #Algeria #AMU
It’s anything but a coincidence. Monday in Tunis, an Algeria-Tunisia-Libya tripartite summit took place. A summit supposed to become quarterly to carry out consultations between the three countries. It was enough for the Algerian press to talk about a “relaunch of the Maghreb without Morocco”.
It would still take a lot more for this to be the case. First, this desire to create a consultation framework at the summit has not been formalized. It was not the subject of a founding meeting during which there would have been a solemn declaration and a formal decision. No, it was done a bit by intrusion: taking advantage of the presence of his Libyan and Tunisian counterparts in Algiers at the beginning of March, for a meeting on gas, the Algerian president met them before later declaring that a new mechanism without Morocco was going to be established.
In Tunis, the meeting on Monday April 22 was sanctioned by a press release full of generalities on security, crime, challenges, etc. Nothing to get anyone out of their isolation.
Invited, Mauritania declined.
Libya has clearly marked its distance from Algerian ulterior motives, through a special envoy from its president, who arrived the day after the Tunis summit. This is Sami El Menfi, sent by President Younes El Menfi. We do not need to be in the secret of the gods to understand that this is a message of friendship to Morocco and that in the mind of this Libyan leader, it is not possible to create a Maghreb without Morocco. The rest is just a desire to cause harm.
Here is the report of the Samir El Menfi-Bourita meeting:
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Living Abroad, Nasser Bourita, received, Tuesday April 23 in Rabat, the envoy of the President of the Libyan Presidential Council, Sami El Menfi, carrying a message written to King Mohammed VI by the president of the Libyan Presidential Council, Mohamed Younes El Menfi.
In a statement to the press following this meeting, Ambassador Aboubaker Ibrahim Ataweel, charge d’affaires at the Libyan embassy in Morocco, indicated that this visit comes “reaffirm the excellence of brotherly relations linking Libya and Morocco“. In this regard, he expressed his country’s thanks to Morocco for its “constant and permanent support”, under the leadership of the Sovereign, to the Libyan question which is reflected through the multiple agreements concluded, notably those of Skhirat, Bouznika and Tangier.
Morocco actively contributed to the settlement of the Libyan crisis and gave his full support for the conclusion of a series of agreements, he recalled, noting that the Skhirat agreement of 2015 remains the cornerstone and a reference for the settlement of the Libyan question.
This visit is also part of efforts aimed at strengthening of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) to meet the aspirations of the people of the region for greater stability and prosperity, said the Libyan ambassador, highlighting the active role played by Morocco in favor of Maghreb integration.
A source close to the Libyan Presidential Council had, it will be recalled, recently rejected outright any attempt to create an alternative framework which would replace the AMU, emphasizing the urgent need to strengthen this regional group whose foundations were laid in 1989 in Marrakech by the five countries of the region.
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