CORCAS setting up is meant to "pave the way for a popular consensual solution that would put an end to the division, a nationalistic option, that has become outdated by the regional and international situation," said on Monday a press release of the Mauritanian Association of Maghreban Cultural Exchange.
 
    The achievement of the Great Maghreb "is an important stride on the path to make true the great dream of the Nation unity that requires unwavering confidence in the capacity to revive and become a grouping in the future," underlines the association. 
 
    The thesis to dismember the Maghreb "requires the active forces in the region to detect the intentions of these calls and think about the nature of the parties that are behind and benefit from them," notes the same source, calling for promoting the process of unity through "the elaboration of a civilized, palpable, positive and human project that promotes adhesion of Maghreban citizens, and respect of and sympathy for other nations."
 
    The Mauritanian association, which includes intellectuals, politicians and civil society representatives, is interested in regional issues and defends the territorial integrity of Maghreb countries, notably Morocco.
 
    Created in 1989 in the Moroccan city of Marrakech, the Maghreb Arab Union (UMA) is still dragging towards a full-fledged grouping. The stalemate that hampers its concretization is the three-decade old Sahara dispute between Morocco and Algeria, which provides political, military, diplomatic and financial support to the separatist movement "Polisario". The latter claims independence of Morocco’s Southern Provinces - the Sahara - a former Spanish colony retrieved by Morocco in 1975 under the Madrid Accord signed with Spain and Mauritania.