(Cairo) The Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Arab League, Saudi Arabia, and Libya called Algeria and Morocco for “dialogue” and “restraint” as the two neighboring countries are going through a diplomatic crisis.
After months of growing tensions, Algeria on Tuesday announced the severing of its diplomatic relations with Morocco, citing “relentless hostile acts perpetrated by Morocco against Algeria”.
Based in Jeddah, the OIC called on the two countries to “dialogue to resolve any differences,” according to a statement.
The secretary general of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit, for his part, urged Algiers and Rabat on Tuesday evening “to show restraint and avoid further escalation”.
Commenting on the deterioration of relations between the two heavyweights of the Maghreb, Saudi Arabia, a regional power, also adopted a conciliatory tone.
“The kingdom calls on the two countries to prioritize dialogue and diplomacy to open a new chapter in relations in order to guarantee security and stability,” the Saudi foreign ministry said on Wednesday in a brief statement. communicated.
Wednesday evening, Libya deplored the crisis, calling on Algiers and Rabat “to restraint” and “to avoid escalation”. In a statement posted on Facebook, Tripoli called on the two countries to “cling to the common principles and objectives that led to the creation of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU)”.
Libya has also called on members of the AMU, a regional body launched in 1989 and which brings together Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, to meet on the sidelines of a meeting of ministers of Foreign affairs of Arab League member states, scheduled for September 7-9.
Relations between Algeria and Morocco are traditionally difficult, mainly due to the thorny issue of Western Sahara.
Tensions were heightened last year when former US President Donald Trump decided to recognize Rabat’s sovereignty over Western Sahara, in return for normalizing Morocco’s relations with Israel.
On Tuesday, the head of Algerian diplomacy Ramtane Lamamra accused Morocco of having “introduced a foreign military power into the Maghreb field”.
In Rabat, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry regretted Algeria’s “completely unjustified” decision, condemning a “logic of escalation” and rejecting “the fallacious, even absurd, pretexts which underlie it”.
