"In the relationship between Morocco and Algeria, we must not curse the future", a famous phrase of the late Algerian President Houari Boumedienne, quoted by Moroccan writer and intellectual Hassan Ourid when talking about Algerian-Moroccan relations, during an interview with Al Jazeera Podcast's "The Day After Yesterday".
"We should not be jealous, because confrontation is not a child's play, as the late Houari Boumediene used to say," Ourid said.
Regarding the current state of Moroccan-Algerian relations, the Moroccan thinker said that they have "moved from continuous tension, to high, to a state of stagnation".
"The Maghreb is living in a strange situation, as it is a region that has all the qualifications to be a pioneer, but the tension it knows does not help it to play a role in the interest of its peoples and the region in which it is, because of the estrangement between Morocco and Algeria that has become a dispute," he said.
In this context, Awrid called on intellectuals in both countries to play a role in order to calm the tense atmosphere between them and the ongoing state of estrangement, adding: "Our role today as intellectuals is to be one of the tools of calm, because the fate of the two countries and peoples is intertwined."
He attributed his call to intellectuals to the fact that "at the moment things cannot be solved at the official level, but the group that lives on ideas and on historical time, must be elements of calm."
"I read with interest some Algerian intellectuals with prudent and courageous visions who are not satisfied with the current situation, and I know Moroccans of course who are not satisfied with this situation, and their presence together can be a light that spreads warmth" in bilateral relations, he added.
"Objectively, there is similarity between the two peoples, and there is an awareness that Morocco and Algeria share a common interest," he concluded.
Ourid is a professor of political science who previously held official positions including spokesman for the royal palace and governor of Meknes-Tafilalet before being appointed for a short time as the kingdom's historian.
In addition to his history as a statesman, Awrid records a remarkable presence in the intellectual and literary field, which he inaugurated with the novel "Hadith and Shajn", which chronicled the period of the fall of the Berlin Wall in the nineties of the last century.
By virtue of his administrative and political responsibilities, he stayed away for years from writing, and then began since 2010 a new phase in intellectual and literary work, through many books in Arabic and French that were popular among a segment of readers and critics.
These include "The Novel of Mecca", "Ribat Al-Mutanabbi", "The Broken Mirror of the West", "For a Cultural Revolution in Morocco", "A World Without Landmarks", and "The Decline of the West".