Moroccan fm: Arab citizens' welfare, priority in Arab joint action
Regional-Morocco, Politics, 3/3/2004

Morocco's minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, Mohamed Benaissa, said yesterday priority in the Arab joint action should be given to ensuring Arab citizens' welfare and meeting their needs.

"We should first meet Arab citizens' needs before addressing abstract ideas and other issues that are difficult to achieve, the head of the Moroccan diplomacy told the extraordinary meeting of the Arab League council, citing as most urgent needs improving the economic and social level and fighting poverty and illiteracy.

After underscoring that the Arab states boasts all human and natural resources needed to reach economic and social development, Benaissa called the Arab states to focus their joint action on consolidating economic cooperation by setting up efficient mechanisms, creating an adequate environment to attract investments, encouraging job creation and controlling brain drain. He also invited peers from other Arab states to deeply ponder economic and social problems in the Arab world and carry out economic and social programs likely to eradicate poverty and illiteracy and make basic social services more accessible to citizens.

For the Moroccan foreign minister, an in-depth action, based on reciprocity of advantages and the exchange of trade, economic and financial interests, is needed in the run-up to the longed for-political harmonization and convergence. He recalled, in this regard, the Agadir declaration for a free trade area signed in Rabat on February 27 by Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia and Egypt, at the initiative of King Mohammed VI, as a model to be followed in Arab cooperation.

He also deemed it necessary to modernize the Arab League financial and administrative management and to review the obsolete Arab charter, criticizing the "heresy" of annexed texts that are unbinding because they are void of any constitutional basis.

Of the long-cherished dream that the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA/grouping mustering Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia) would be similar to the European Union, Benaissa said "political and practical elements are not yet gathered," adding that the EU member states have vested their union with sovereign attributions, which is not the case for the UMA secretariat general.

The Moroccan official presented his ideas as Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia floated a joint proposal for reforming the pan-Arab Organization. It was agreed to retain the Moroccan document as a platform for recommendations to be submitted to the Arab summit, slated for end of this month in Tunis.

Previous Stories:
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  Four Arab states Sign in Rabat FTZ agreement   (2/25/2004)
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