Report: No Maghreb summit this year

The Tunisian newspaper El-Sherouk issued today excluded convening a Maghreb summit this year as planned, saying that it was expected that last October would witness a meeting of the foreign ministers' council of the Arab Maghreb Union council to pave the way for convening the presidential council on level of the countries' leaders, yet this never happened.

The newspaper added that "delaying the summit occurred since the death of King Hassan II and the developments that rule the Moroccan - Algerian relations," yet the matter which the newspaper said ended the dallying finally was Mauritania raising its diplomatic representation with Israel to the level ambassadors.

This step was received by the Maghreb states with either complete rejection and denunciation or by saying that the decision currently conflicts with the total Arab or Moroccan positions.