Arab Maghreb Union marks 10th anniversary

The Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) is celebrating this February its 10th anniversary.

On this occasion, Tunisian President Zine El-Abidine Bin Ali sent King Hassan II a message of congratulations wherein he underlined that the union's creation fulfilled Maghreban peoples' aspirations to unity.

President Bin Ali called for more efforts to preserve the union's achievements and strategic interest and stressed the need to reactivate the UMA bodies.

The UMA that was set up in Marrakesh in 1989 and that musters Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and tunisia, is paralyzed due to strained relations between Morocco and Algeria over Algiers' direct involvement in the Sahara issue and due to Libya's criticism of the attitude adopted by the other UMA members in the Lockerbie crisis opposing Tripoli to western countries.

The Tunisian president stated that the Maghreb has huge human and economic potentials allowing the region to play an outstanding role on the international scene.