RABAT -- More
than 200 Moroccan and Algerian civil society figures on Saturday appealed for a
"return to reason" following the decision of Algiers to cut
diplomatic ties with Rabat.
اضافة اعلان
Intellectuals, academics and other civil society actors,
most of them Moroccan, signed a petition rejecting the "current situation
which could lead to an unnatural confrontation... contrary to the interests of
the two peoples and the region".
The signatories called for a "return to reason"
and "moves against escalation and hatred".
Late last month, Algeria announced it was
cutting
diplomatic ties with Morocco, accusing it of "hostile actions" after
months of high tensions between the North African rivals.
Morocco has called the severing of ties "completely
unjustified" and said the decision was based on "false, even absurd
pretexts".
Relations between Algiers and Rabat have been fraught in
past decades, especially over the flashpoint issue of the disputed Western
Sahara, where Algeria backs the pro-independence Polisario Front.
In July, Morocco's King Mohammed VI deplored the tensions
and invited Algeria's President Abdelmadjid Tebboune "to make wisdom
prevail" and "work in unison for the development of relations"
between the neighbouring countries.
Rabat had severed diplomatic relations with Algeria in 1976
for several years after Algiers recognised the Sahrawi
Arab Democratic Republic
(SADR), proclaimed by the Polisario.
The border between the two countries has been closed since
1994.
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