The online newspaper Rai Al-Youm on Sunday reported that Algeria has been laboring to establish a block of countries to reject Israel’s observer’s status in the African Union.
Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra will discuss revoking Israel’s membership in the African Union in his upcoming trips to Tunisia, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt.
The African Union (AU) consists of 55 member states, all located on the continent of Africa. It was founded on May 26, 2001, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and launched on July 9, 2002, in Durban, South Africa. On July 22, Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid announced that it had joined the African Union as an observer and that Israeli Ambassador to Addis Ababa, Adamsu Alali, presented his credentials as an observer to the African Union for the first time since 2002.
The Foreign Ministry’s statement added that Israel maintains diplomatic relations with 46 countries in Africa, with which it cooperates in many areas of development and trade.
The Israeli statement noted that once the relationship with the African Union is established, the two sides would work together on fighting Corona and preventing the spread of extremist terrorism across the continent.
“This will help us strengthen our activities to the continent and to the member states of the Union,” Minister Lapid concluded.
Israel was an observer in the Organization of African Unity, but in 2002, when it was replaced by the African Union, the Israeli membership was revoked.
According to the online Arabic language newspaper Rai Al-Youm, South Africa, Tunisia, Eritrea, Senegal, Tanzania, Niger, the archipelago of Qamar, Gabon, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Liberia, and Seychelles have so far agreed to expel Israel.