Morocco's attachment to the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) equals its deep attachment to its territorial integrity
Morocco-Maghreb, Politics, 1/17/2002

Morocco's attachment to the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) equals its deep attachment to its territorial integrity, Moroccan foreign affairs and cooperation minister, Mohamed Benaissa said in Algiers Thursday.

"I renew again, in all frankness and responsibility, that Morocco's solid attachment to our Union only equals its deep and strong attachment to the integrity of its territories. In other words, the force of our Union lies in that of its states and the integrity of their territories," Benaissa told the opening of the 19th ordinary session of the UMA ministers council.

The minister stressed that the future of the region depends on the strength and cohesion of the Union, on the elimination of divergences, on harmony of policies and on the complementarity of the member countries' economies.

UMA was set up in 1989 by Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania. But the Union failed to take off as a full-fledged grouping, mainly due to Algeria's direct involvement in the issue of the Moroccan Sahara.

The faithful attachment to the Marrakesh Treaty, setting up the Union, is the sole and unique means to take up the various challenges and constraints, Benaissa said.

"Our unshakable faith and firm commitment for the Maghreban Union, as a popular and as an inevitable regional and historical claim calls us, in this delicate stage, to secure the political climate and the practical mechanisms to achieve the expected goals on solid, clear and irreversible bases," he insisted.

The ministerial council is debating the results of the various Maghreban meetings held at the level of work groups, specialized commissions or ministerial commissions and set a program for the coming phase.

Algerian foreign minister, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, had told Radio Cairo the UMA ministerial council meeting marks a turning point for a new phase in the action of all the UMA structures.

For Belkhadem the meeting means that the UMA "has started to reactivate its mechanisms to keep pace with the current developments."

The session, he said, will debate several regional and international issues, with focus on the situation in the Middle East and the imperative need to back the Palestinian people and to struggle against terrorism. The meeting will also discuss the Maghreb-European Union partnership and every means to consolidate inter-Maghreban cooperation and economic complementarity.

Previous Stories:
  Moroccan FM attends Maghreban ministerial council meeting in Algiers   (1/16/2002)
  Moroccan FM confirms his participation in UMA foreign ministers meeting   (1/9/2002)
  Speaker of morocco's parliament receives political affairs committee of Maghreban shoura council   (8/23/2001)

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