North African leaders meet in Tunis to strengthen ties

Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and the President of Libya’s Presidential Council, Mohamed Al Menfi, arrived in Tunis yesterday for talks at the invitation of Tunisia’s President Kais Saied.

The two leaders and their accompanying delegations were welcomed by Mr Saied at the Tunis Carthage International Airport.

Officials from Libya, Algeria and Tunisia agreed during a meeting in Algiers last month, on the sidelines of the Gas Exporting Countries Summit, that the three North African countries should hold talks every three months to foster partnership and co-operation.

The plan, which seeks to revive the role of the Arab Maghreb Union, has been criticised as it does not involve Morocco and Mauritania – the two other members of the regional bloc established in 1989.

Mr Tebboune rejected the criticism in an interview with state television this month, saying it was “unacceptable” to isolate anyone in the Maghreb region. The bloc has suffered several setbacks over the years because of political and diplomatic feuds between its member states, mainly Algeria and Morocco.

Mohamed Abou Dhahab, a professor of international studies at Rabat’s Mohamed V University, said the three-nation meeting in Tunis could mark the end of the Arab Maghreb Union bloc, which has been “broken” for years.

“Morocco considers this [the Tunis talks] not only a violation of the 1989 Marrakesh treaty [under which the Arab Maghreb Union was established] but it is also a significant estrangement that would sign the death of the project,” he told The National.

Algeria cut diplomatic ties with Morocco in August 2021 after accusing Rabat of backing “terrorist groups” who allegedly started the deadly wildfires in the country’s north-east that year.

Relations between the two countries have been strained by Algeria’s perceived support for a separatist movement in a region of Morocco.