Morocco's King to attend Arab Summit in Algeria in November: report

Morocco's King Mohammed VI will reportedly attend the Arab summit in Algeria next November for the first time in more than a decade, reported Jeune Afrique Magazine

Citing "well-informed sources", the pan-African news magazine said Monday that several gulf countries such as Qatar and Kuwait were informed that the Moroccan monarch will "personally take part" in the 31st Arab Summit to be held 1-2 November. 

King Mohammed VI's attendance will be in the spirit of the kingdom's encouragement of other Arab states to participate in summits "at a very high level" to ensure the summit's success, added Jeune Afrique's report.

Rabat has yet to react to the unconfirmed royal attendance.

Last week, Morocco's ministry of foreign affairs confirmed an upcoming official visit from Algeria's justice minister Abderrachid Tabi to Rabat to hand Moroccan officials an invitation to the summit.

Tabi's announced visit broke the ice between the two North African frenemies after a year of diplomatic stalemate and a long-standing political tit-for-tat.

In 2021, Algiers halted ties with Rabat over the kingdom's "hostile acts", mainly due to the Moroccan-Israeli normalisation deal.

Moroccan-Algerian ties have been in a standoff since the two countries gained independence, mainly for the Western Sahara dispute.

Once Morocco seized the bulk of Western Sahara, Algeria began to provide military support to the Polisario Front and allowed its leaders and many Sahrawi refugees to establish themselves on Algerian territory.

The last royal attendance at the Arab summit was in 2005, when King Mohammed VI participated in the summit held in Algiers as Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria's president at the time, vowed to open a new page with Rabat and strengthen the Maghreb integration. 

On July 30, King Mohammed VI invited Algeria once again to have a frank dialogue and end the decades-old political stalemate.  The Algerian state did not respond to the royal initiative.

However, the Moroccan monarch has also insisted that Rabat's territorial integrity is non-negotiable.

Experts hold little hope for the outcome of the potential Moroccan official visit to Algeria, as both states seem unready to negotiate their positions on the dispute of Western Sahara.