UMA countries insist on putting on track the Magreb Union despite differences
Maghreb, Politics, 2/19/2005

Foreign Ministers of member states of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) made up of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania, have insisted on putting on track the Union despite differences among member countries.

Morocco's Mohamed Benaissa, Algeria's Abdelaziz Belkhadem, Tunisia's Abdelbaqi Harmassi, Mauritania's Mohamed Fal Ould Blal, and Libya's Abderrahman Chalgham as well as UMA Secretary general Habib Boulares, insisted on the need to speed up efforts to re-energize the north African regional grouping which is facing a stalemate due to political differences between member countries, in particular between the two most populated ones, Morocco and Algeria. Both countries are at loggerheads because of Algerian authorities political, logistic, financial and military support to the Polisario front. The latter is claiming the separation of the Moroccan Southern provinces, known as the Sahara, from the rest of the Kingdom. The Sahara was a former Spanish colony until 1975 when Morocco retrieved it under the Madrid Accords.

The Ministers, who were meeting Thursday in Rabat to assess UMA activities, stressed the need to favour dialogue as the only means to settle pending issues as was put by Mohamed Benaissa in a statement to the national TV "TVM."

Member countries "should focus on issues that secure the durability of the Union and consultation conditions, for, whatever the problems, dialog must be pursued," he insisted.

He was echoed by his Maghreban peers who said this meeting also provided the opportunity to exchange views on regional and international issues, hoping it would give a new impulse to the Union.

UMA celebrated on February 17th its 16th anniversary. On this occasion, Moroccan King Mohammed VI sent a message to the leaders of UMA countries in which he hoped that the Union "fulfil the historical and future aspirations of our brotherly peoples, for the achievement of integration in all the fields cited in the Marrakech Charter."

The same hope was voiced by Tunisian President Zine El Abidine in a message to the monarch.

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