Youssoufi calls for Arab union

ArabicNews.com, 28 April 2001

Moroccan Premier Abderrahmane Youssoufi, on Thursday called for the setting up of an Arab union, describing such an objective as an aspiration of the Arab people.

The Arab public opinion aspires to the updating of the charter of the league of Arab states in a bid to set up an Arab Union, Youssoufi said at the closing session of a meeting on Arab Renaissance, held in fez April 23–26.

The Arab people also aspire to the creation of a parliamentary institution that will become a forum for dialogue on the huge challenges that the Arab states will have to take up, he said, and called for the creation of a new council that will group all Arab heads of state and for the setting up of an executive institution that will implement the decisions of the Union.

Such a union also needs economic, financial, cultural and social institutions, Youssoufi added.

The shared interests of the Arab nation require Arabs to get together to be able to take up the challenges that put at stake their very future and destiny, the Premier underlined.

The Fez meeting, held under the aegis of King Mohammed VI, was attended by scores of thinkers from 18 Arab states.