In a direction contrasting with the nature of things, Morocco has been tending towards being more concerned with the Eastern region along the border strip with Algeria, while the latter has approved building a highway stretching from the East near Tunisia to Morocco, yet one that stops before the obstacle of the sealed border with Morocco, not continuing its journey across the Maghreb. Such a choice, the short-term and long-term goals of which are divergent, consecrates a more dangerous aspect of the rupture that has become a de facto situation which Algerians and Moroccans have to deal with equally. It is as if it were a fate there was no way to overcome, although it is an exception of the kind of deformities that scar the natural image of relations which should be dominated by understanding, cooperation and good neighborliness. Yet the exception, which rose to the surface of relations between the two neighboring countries on the morning of a hot day in August 1994, on the background of the terrorist attacks against the Atlas-Asni hotel in Marrakech, has turned into a rule which nearly resembles old struggles towards nationalization and imposing the centrality of the state in politics and the economy, without taking into account the results that could be involved by the decision to seal the border, which says something about the decisions to wage wars, yet exceeds this in battles of seclusion and of turning one's back to the truths of complementarity, interaction and integration. The outcome seems heavy after 16 years since the rupture has come into effect, with vagrant human relations along a shared border strip, one which had until recent times been a space for coexistence, cohabitation and strengthening human bonds, and which has turned into a deterrent that prevents any convergence. Economics which possessed all the requirements of complementarity and integration within the rule of border economy have become constricted and isolated, not helping to develop the field, then become subjected to successive political crises, the tragic chapters of one not ending before a new one begins, unleashed from the bonds of control, restraint and composure. Finally, there are the perspectives devoid of outlets into which is falling the Maghreb Union, which awaits the bullet of mercy in the reanimation room. Each country tries to forestall the other in putting forth keys and views, far from the dreams of building Maghreb unity and of relations of good neighborliness. Indeed, seclusion is the enemy of openness, and the wager on relying on one's own capabilities does not withstand the wind of changes that impose the rise of productive coalitions, with benefits that reflect on the lives of peoples. Yet the inhabitants of the Maghreb region, who used to take pride in their being untainted by the disputes that plague the Levant, have done nothing more than reproduce negative experiences, making them unlikely to contribute to the support and championing of just Arab causes, and more likely to be engrossed in local issues dominated by seclusion. The matter is not limited to such a prognosis, which seems acceptable by the logic of domestic arrangements that give it priority, but exceeds this by spreading ideas and convictions that make everything contingent on internal preoccupations. It will be a shame that the generations of Moroccans and Algerians who were born after the decision to seal the borders have seen nothing of a historical movement which used to negate obstacles, restrictions and borders, but which has now stopped at the edge of the road, stretching only in the direction of further isolation. For the solution to the problems of the sealed borders to be contingent on dialogue and understanding which had started around five years ago, through mutual decisions in terms of abolishing the visa system for citizens of the two countries, is a matter over which there is no debate, as long as dialogue is the closest straight line to containing the realities that favor cooperation and understanding. And for it to be contingent on diplomatic channels in directing decisions is a better choice than exchanging attacks in the media. Yet for the issue to remain open until the end of the Western Sahara conflict is a matter that does not reflect a true will to overcome obstacles. Both Algeria and Morocco know that the issue of the Western Sahara is under the care of the United Nations, and that all they can do is support its efforts aimed at ratifying a just and permanent political solution. In the case Algeria ventures to take such a step, it would be doing nothing more than what it has committed to in order to allow the inhabitants of the province to determine their own fate. Yet such a notion in itself is not subject to unified interpretations, just as the entrenchment of the rupture no longer arouses feelings of bitterness and concern.
