The Algerian capital hosted, Sunday, a summit bringing together three Maghrebi countries. Responding to Abdelmadjid Tebboune's invitation were the President of Tunisia, Kaïs Saïed, and the President of the Libyan Presidential Council, Mohamed Younes El-Menfi. The participants in the meeting «examined the situation in the Maghreb region and underlined the need to unify and intensify efforts to meet the economic and security challenges, in the service of the interests of the people of the three countries», indicates the Algerian presidency in a press release. It was decided at the end of the talks, «to hold a tripartite North African meeting every three months, the first in Tunisia after Ramadan», specifies the same source. It is worth noting that President Tebboune announced, on February 12, the opening of free trade zones with five African countries, including Tunisia and Libya. The Algiers meeting, which aims to relaunch the Maghreb project, saw the absence of Mauritania, even if President Mohamed Cheikh Ould El Ghazouani took part, Saturday in Algiers, alongside his Tunisian and Libyan counterparts, to the work of the 7th summit of the Forum of Gas Exporting Countries. The Mauritanian president's absence is not solely due to the recent passing of his father. An absence which fits, rather, with Mauritania's concern not to take part in the disputes between Morocco and Algeria. The tripartite meeting in Algiers represents the longstanding vision of Tunisian Rached Ghannouchi, the leader of the Islamist Ennahda party, detained for several months in his country. In February 2021, he pleaded in favor of a Maghreb composed solely of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. «This core must be the starting point for the relaunch of the dream of the Arab Maghreb Union, which will contribute to solving Tunisia's problems in a regional framework», he stressed in statements to the press.
