This Sunday, the Arab League welcomed the opening of Algerian airspace to humanitarian flights to and from Morocco, praising Algeria’s “position of solidarity” towards that country, according to the Efe agency.
In a statement, according to the Spanish news agency, the secretary general of the Arab League, Ahmed Abulgueit, highlighted the Algerian decision to open its airspace, closed two years ago, to humanitarian flights, highlighting the “total availability” expressed by Algeria to help Morocco, a neighboring country with which its land border has been closed for more than 30 years.
The Algerian decision comes after an earthquake shook the Marrakech region on Friday night, killing at least two thousand people.
“I welcome Algeria’s genuine position alongside Morocco in the earthquake catastrophe, including the opening of airspace and the willingness to help (…) this is the Arab spirit of solidarity, which we are pleased to see prevail among brothers” said Abulgheit, quoted by Efe.
“Perhaps this can be deepened” to reconcile relations between Morocco and Algeria, he added.
On Saturday, Algeria announced the opening of its airspace to humanitarian flights and the transport of wounded people to and from Morocco, two years after banning civil and military flights from that country.
The Algerian authorities also guaranteed “total availability to provide humanitarian assistance and put all their material and human capabilities in solidarity with the brother Moroccan people, when Morocco requests it.”
The two countries are part of the Arab League, which includes more than 20 member states, but have had a tense relationship for decades due to political differences and mutual accusations of hostility.
In September 2021, Algiers ordered the immediate closure of its airspace to civil and military flights, as well as aircraft registered in Morocco, after breaking diplomatic relations with Rabat, accusing Morocco of “hostile actions.”
Algiers justified the measure with Rabat’s support for groups that Algeria classifies as terrorists and that were allegedly involved in the fires that devastated the north of the country and in which a hundred people lost their lives.
The land borders between both States have been closed since 1994 by Algerian decision, after Rabat indirectly blamed Algeria for an attack in Marrakech, imposing a visa requirement for Algerians to enter the country.
The earthquake that shook Morocco on Friday night caused more than two thousand deaths and more than two thousand injuries, causing extensive damage in the Marrakech region, an important Moroccan tourist destination.
The earthquake, whose epicenter was recorded in the town of Ighil, 63 kilometers southwest of the city of Marrakech, was felt in Portugal and Spain and reached a magnitude of 7.0 on the Richter scale, according to the National Institute of Geophysics of Marrakesh. .
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recorded the magnitude of the earthquake at 6.8.
Source: TSF
