Tunisia hails Morocco's decision to lift visa requirements for Algerians
Tunisia-Morocco, Politics, 8/4/2004

Tunisian foreign minister, Habib Ben Yahya, hailed Morocco's initiative, announced on Friday, to lift visa requirements for Algerian nationals wanting to enter Morocco, official sources said.

Speaking at an annual conference of heads of the Tunisian diplomatic and consular missions, Ouyahya said "we consider this decision as a significant progress that will contribute to increased consolidation of the bridges of rapprochement and human contacts between the two brotherly peoples in Morocco and Algeria."

The visa requirement for Algerians was enforced in Morocco in 1994 after a group of Algerian nationals were found guilty of taking part in an attack against a luxury hotel in Marrakech. Algeria reacted by closing its land borders with the kingdom.

The head of the Tunisian diplomacy said his country welcomes the Moroccan initiative as a move that will open a new page in relations between the two states and impulse the construction and consolidation of the Maghreb Union.

The Maghreb Union (UMA) musters Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania and Libya. This regional grouping is suffering divergences, mainly between Morocco and Algeria, over the latter's support to the Polisario front that is claiming secession of Morocco's southern provinces, known as the Sahara. This former Spanish colony was retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid accord signed with Mauritania and Spain.

The UMA also praised Morocco's decision to grant Algerians visa-free access, said Libyan foreign minister (secretary of the General Popular Committee of Foreign Relations and International Cooperation), Abderrahmane Cholghom, who is chairing UMA's current session.

"The Union welcomes the move with satisfaction and consideration," he said, describing it as a new step towards enhancement of the regional grouping.

The decision is also an answer to resolutions adopted by the UMA's foreign ministers council, held this July 24 in Syrte, Libya, Cholghom said.

Previous Stories:
  King Mohammed arrives in Tunis   (5/22/2004)
  Message from Morocco's King to Tunisian President   (4/20/2004)
  King mohammed vi holds phone talks with Tunisian president on Arab summit   (3/24/2004)

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