King Mohammed renews pledge to revive Maghreban Union

King Mohammed VI has renewed pledge to revive the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA), which marked on Thursday its 11th anniversary. This came in separate messages, the king sent to Libyan leader, Moammar Kaddafi, and to Mauritanian President, Mouaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya.

"While reiterating (...) our firm determination to go ahead on the path towards the materialization of our peoples' aspirations to reviving the Maghreban Union, as an ideal strategic option for cooperation and complementarity and to face up the challenges looming on our region in the international and regional environment, where only strong and complementary groups will have a place, we reaffirm Morocco's readiness to spare no effort to materialize this noble objective," King Mohammed VI said in the message to Kaddafi.

The same will was voiced in the message the King sent to President Ould Taya of Mauritania.

UMA --set up in 1989 in Marrakesh by Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia-- has so far failed to develop into a full-fledged regional grouping, mainly due to differences between Morocco and Algeria. Algeria's direct involvement in the Moroccan Sahara issue has braked all efforts to translate into reality the UMA charter, providing for full integration among the five nations.

King Mohammed VI had pledged to endeavor for the consolidation of the Maghreban Union in similar messages to Presidents Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria.