Are relations between the countries of the Maghreb, or more broadly North Africa, doomed to failure? Was the AMU (Arab Maghreb Union) nipped in the bud, despite the good intentions of its founders?
In recent weeks, the heated news from the Maghreb, Africa and the Near and Middle East has only added fuel to the fire, if we consider the political relations between the different countries that make up North Africa.
In the Maghreb, since my previous article on Tunisia’s perspective on the Sahara territorial conflict, diplomatic relations between Tunisia and Morocco have deteriorated significantly.
In a bombshell development, it is rumoured that at the end of the Eid al-Fitr celebrations, a telephone call took place between Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Tunisian President Kaïs Saïed, during which the transfer to Tunisia of certain Polisario Front figures currently living in camps in western Algeria was discussed. The Algerian government’s objective is to avoid any accusations of supporting terrorism, particularly since Algeria was placed on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list.
Such allegations do not reflect the words of our late President Habib Bourguiba, father of the Tunisian nation, who advocated Tunisia’s positive neutrality in the territorial conflict between Algiers and Rabat, Algeria and Morocco. During the 1970s, Tunis adopted a conciliatory stance between the two countries, promoting the idea of neutrality to each of the belligerents and external forces involved.
Indeed, it should be remembered that the different international positions in support of Moroccan or independent Sahara (Algeria’s position) only add fuel to the fire and reinforce tensions between the two neighbouring countries.
Recent events have brought Tunisia face to face with a problematic chapter in its diplomatic history with Morocco, which sees this history as a blow to relations between the two countries as a whole.
We should also recall the fraternal words of King Hassan II in March 1980, in the aftermath of the events in Gafsa, Tunisia, where armed action was orchestrated at the time by Libya and Algeria to bring down the Tunisian regime:
‘Tunisia will never be destabilised because it is first and foremost a people, and you cannot destabilise a people […] But to erase the subconscious and conscious mind of the Tunisian people (…) you would need an atomic bomb to wipe it off the map completely.’
Finally, Tunisians, Algerians, Libyans and Moroccans have embarked on a bus journey from Tunis to Cairo to stage a protest march against the Israeli government: ultimately, the Maghreb may not be as distant as we really think, except for Cairo’s desire to raise the question of North African hegemony…
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