The summit in Tunisia highlights Morocco’s isolation in the Maghreb

Algeria, Tunisia and Libya launched a new consultation framework. Their leaders met on Monday 22 April during a summit in Tunis, in the absence of Morocco and Mauritania.

Algeria confirmed and reiterated that this “ new formula » has no intention to replace the Union of the Arab Maghreb (UMA), which has been lethargic for several years, and even ” in a coma », to use the expression of the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Attaf.

The head of Algerian diplomacy, as well as the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, also assured in turn that the initiative is not intended for anyone and that the door remains open to everyone. The allusion is apparently to Morocco, with which Algeria severed diplomatic relations in August 2021, after some observers began to characterize the new framework as ” Maghreb without Morocco “.

Considering the development of the situation in the region in the last 30 years and the orientations of Morocco that it has fully taken, it is quite reasonable to ask whether it still has a serious interest in the construction of the Maghreb, in other words, it does not de facto exclude itself from the joint projects of its neighbors .

Speaking of projects, several specific ones were discussed or launched on the occasion of the Tunisia summit, with the establishment of working groups for sensitive issues such as the movement of people and goods, development of border areas, water from the Albian aquifer, energy, food security, electrical interconnection and the fight against illegal migration and organized crime.

Something new and promising was born in Tunisia between Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. In addition to the announced cooperation in the mentioned and other areas, the three countries are committed to speaking with one voice and to weigh together, as a regional block, on major international political issues.

All this without Morocco, which seems to have made up its mind a long time ago. “ Morocco seems to be looking at the whole world, except for its neighbors », writes the French newspaper Les Échos, taking into account the foreign policy of the kingdom in recent decades.

If relations with Algeria deteriorated, from the closing of the common border in 1994 to the complete termination of diplomatic relations in August 2021, with other Maghreb neighbors, Rabat does not maintain excellent relations either, with episodic crises sometimes with Tunisia as well as during the reception of the Saharan president by Kaïsa Saïed in September 2022, sometimes from Mauritania, several of whose citizens have been killed by the Moroccan army in recent years.

Morocco has always turned its back on its neighbors in the Maghreb

Moreover, Morocco’s priority has always been elsewhere than in the Maghreb. Precisely in Washington, Brussels, Paris, Madrid and Tel Aviv.

In 2004, while the AMU was dying, the kingdom signed a free trade agreement with the United States, after which in 2008 it received ” advanced status » in its agreement on joining the European Union. In 2022, he took care of his relations with Spain, and is in the process of doing the same with France.

Above all, in 2020, he took a step towards normalization with Israel, with whom he accelerated military cooperation to try to establish a fait accompli in Western Sahara and supposedly protect himself from his Algerian neighbor, according to Moroccan media.

In addition to the West, Morocco has also always prioritized good understanding with the Gulf monarchies.

Recently, the kingdom turned south, promising the Sahel countries (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad) a strategic partnership project that includes utopian access to the Atlantic via Mauritania and Western Sahara.

” Morocco has a gift for proposing projects that make everyone laugh. This was the case with her EU accession project, the tunnel under the Mediterranean, the Saharan route », mocks the Algerian official.

In order to become indispensable to Europe, he also undertook to compete with Algeria in the supply of gas to the old continent by considering the construction of a gas pipeline connecting it to Nigeria.

Rabat’s interest in Africa is not new. For several years, it has multiplied its leverage with the aim of gaining support within the African Union for its business of colonizing Western Sahara.

The kingdom’s lack of interest in the Maghreb is obvious. As of 2020, he has completely burned his ships in connection with a possible joint project with his neighbors.

“ Maintaining very good relations with Israel “, Morocco” disqualified from any discussion within the Maghreb », estimates Hasni Abidi, director of the Center for Studies and Research of the Arab and Mediterranean World, quoted by Les Échos.

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