Measure was taken after Algeria ordered on Sunday (13) that 12 French interior ministry officials left the country within 48 hours, in response to the detention in France, of a consular employee of Algerian
The president of, decided on Tuesday (15) to expel 12 consular and diplomatic employees and summoned the French ambassador to Algiers for consultations, said his office, in a context of growing tension between the two countries. According to Macron, the expelled employees were “on their way to France” and asked the country from North Africa to “resume dialogue.” The measure was taken after Algeria ordered on Sunday that 12 French interior ministry officials left the country within 48 hours, in response to the detention in France, of a consular clerk. Relations between Paris and Algiers were tense last year, when France changed its official position on Western Sahara, whose future, according to the French view, goes through “Moroccan sovereignty.”
The question of this Spanish colony, classified by the UN as a “non-autonomous territory”, has been hidden for Morocco for half a century-which controls much of the region-to independentists Saarauís from the polisarier front, supported by Algeria. Relations deteriorated further when Algeria arrested in November, Franco-Argeline writer Boualem Sansal, on accusations related to national security, after he shared, in a far-right French media, the position of Morocco that part of his territory was amputated for the benefit of Algeria during French colonization.
*With information from AFP
Posted by Sarah Paula
