Date: 12/8/04
www.map.co.ma
Algerian foreign minister, Abdelaziz Belkhadem, described on Morocco’s decision to lift visa requirements for Algerian nationals, in force since 1994, as a token of “friendship and brotherhood between the two countries,” the Algerian news agency APS reported.
The message sent by president Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria to HM king Mohammed VI on Morocco’s Throne day has helped things move forward, said Belkhadem at a meeting with Lakhdar Ibrahimi, the UN secretary general’s special envoy.
According to APS, the head of Algerian diplomacy said “opening borders between Algeria and Morocco is being examined by the commissions set up for this aim in both countries.”
Concerning Algeria’s lifting visa requirements for Moroccans, Belkhadem said Algeria’s decision will be known shortly, the same source said.
The Maghreb Union (UMA), mustering Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania, hailed Morocco’s decision to grant Algerians visa-free access, said Libyan foreign minister (secretary of the General Popular Committee of Foreign Relations and International Cooperation), Abderrahmane Cholghom, who is chairing UMA’s current session.
The Union welcomes the move with satisfaction and consideration, he said, describing it as a new step towards enhancement of the regional grouping.
Practical activation of the Maghreb union has been hampered by the conflict opposing Morocco to the Algeria-backed Polisario separatists, who claim secession of Morocco’s southern provinces, known as the Sahara. This former Spanish colony was retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid Accords, signed with Spain and Mauritania.
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