It is an alluring idea to begin looking into the possibility of holding a Maghreb Summit on the sidelines of the Arab Summit in Tripoli. Indeed, the idea is no more than a return to the roots, to the day when the Arab Maghreb Union emerged from the womb of Arab preoccupations in which North African capitals had played significant roles. In the 1980s, there was no question over the possibilities of Maghreb capitals dealing with the Middle East crisis. At the time, Rabat was heralding an era of just peace that was never achieved, Algeria was a landmark in formulating Palestinian decisions, and Tunisia was the alternative host of Palestinian fighters. Meanwhile, Libya and Mauritania were not far from being attracted to the wrestle of positions and stances connected to Arab affairs. It would be simple for Maghreb leaders, after they put aside part of their Arab contradictions, to meet in Tripoli to bring back the memory of the historical ties, the linguistic and geographic expanses, and the spiritual beliefs that brought them together. They may have been possessed by some jealousy vis-à-vis the experience of the countries of the then emerging Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and may have wished to join the march of the European Economic Community (EEC). Yet they failed to meet many of their appointments, despite the fact that they timed their clocks to the obsession of a Maghreb unity that has become difficult to achieve. Indeed, the experience is nearly required from within their constituents and from the regional neighborhood, which prefers a minimum of stability to leaping into the unknown. This is the characteristic that represents an exception in relations between an Arab group and its closest neighborhood, one that has not opened any windows to let in fresh air. One of the wagers of the Arab Maghreb Union was its lack of isolationism, having awoken on the background of a region exhausted by politics of competing alignments that threatened its cohesion and solidarity: the Arab-African unity between Morocco and Libya, and the Treaty of Fraternity and Concord between Algeria, Tunisia and Mauritania. Meanwhile, disagreeing stances between those who called for endurance and resistance and those who preached moderation and realism increased the divergence between Maghreb capitals. This means that the establishment of the Arab Maghreb Union more than two decades ago was meant to break with those policies, yet it did not confront itself with enough constructive criticism to emerge from the tunnel. Today, the situation seems closer to that of fish thrown to the sea, as the natural space of the Maghreb outlet is not separate from the realities of the Arab World. Indeed, several Arab issues have suffered harm from the withdrawal of the Maghreb, which paralyzed the region's ability to support Egyptian challenges. Meanwhile, the attraction of African countries to support the Arab World in its just struggles has been affected by the side-effects of Maghreb-African disputes, and the Arab-European dialogue was no better at containing such repercussions. The day the Arab Maghreb Union was able to firmly set its feet on the ground, Egypt realized that its Arab role could be reinforced by joining the Maghreb Union and rushed to request membership, before the dreams of the Maghreb collapsed when faced with the wall of bilateral and regional disputes, the negative influence of which is still prevalent. Paradoxically, at a time when the capitals of North Africa sought to turn their backs on the Arab Levant for reasons that concern each party on its own, it was not long until the people of the Levant opened up to the region, out of the desire to mend the rift and to search for outlets for investments and economic wagers. Nevertheless, the Union for the Mediterranean represented a precedent in terms of formulating the idea of production profitability for large-scale collaborative projects that would bring the Northern and Southern coastlines of the Mediterranean Sea closer together. Although the circumstances of establishing the Arab Maghreb Union were linked to the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the countries of Western Europe rushing towards their Eastern counterparts that had emerged from under the influence of the red cloak, the Maghreb region remains capable of taking on a central role, if not with the same strength and influence at the Arab and European levels, then at least at the level of achieving economic complementarity and self-sufficiency based on the variety of its resources. It is not certain that the Maghreb Summit can find its way to taking place on the sidelines of the next Arab Summit. Yet there is nothing that would prevent bringing back the reference of establishment and the perspectives of opening up to the future. Indeed, there are Arab and regional responsibilities that impose their challenges on everyone.
