Algerian President invites Mohammed VI to Arab League Summit
Rabat, Morocco (PANA) - The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, has received an invitation from Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to participate in the Arab Summit scheduled for early November in Algiers, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry announced on Tuesday.
The Algerian Minister of Justice, Abderrachid Tabi, handed over to the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, the letter of invitation addressed to His Majesty King Mohammed VI to attend the Arab summit, scheduled for 1-2 November,2022, in Algeria, said a statement from the Moroccan ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Moroccan side did not however indicate who would represent the Cherifian kingdom at this 31st summit of the Arab League in Algiers.
Media and Arab sources had announced in mid-September that King Mohammed VI will personally participate in the Arab Summit in Algiers, while Moroccan media reported that Morocco would be represented by Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita.
The presence of the Moroccan sovereign in Algiers is of great importance in a climate of tension between the two countries, which reached its peak last August when Algeria announced the rupture of its diplomatic relations with Morocco, accusing Rabat "of having committed (towards it) hostile acts since Algeria's independence" in 1962, before closing its airspace to Moroccan aircraft flights.
Morocco has expressed, in communiqués, its regret over Algeria's decision to break off relations, describing the reasons put forward by Algiers as "fallacious".
Relations between the two neighbouring countries have been strained for decades due to Algeria's support for the Polisario Front, which claims independence for Western Sahara, while Morocco considers the Sahara as part of its territory.
Morocco has achieved a diplomatic and political breakthrough since its reintegration into the African Union in 2017, leading some 20 African and other Latin American countries to open consuls in Laayoune and Dakhla in the Sahara.
Other countries, such as the United States, recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in 2020, which observers consider a great "geostrategic achievement" for Morocco.
-0- PANA AT/AD/IN/JSG/BBA/RA 28Sept2022
