After a short pause, the tensions become again between France and Algeria, after the announcement of the decision of the Algerian authorities to expel twelve French officials, in particular the Ministry of Interior, at the risk of reprisals.
On Friday, three men, including an employee of one of Algeria’s consulates in France, were accused in Paris, particularly for arrest, kidnapping, kidnapping or arbitrary detention, in relation to a terrorist company, according to the French National Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT).
For the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, invited in France 2 this Tuesday, April 15, these two cases “have nothing to do”: “Justice is an independent and legal procedure (the three men accused the editor’s note). They have nothing to do with the relationship between two governments.”
“The Algerian authorities have decided to react to this independent legal procedure by expelling twelve French officials. It is a decision that is very unfortunate, that will not have a consequence and that compromises the dialogue we had begun,” says the minister.
“Ready to act”
“If Algeria persists in wanting to expel these twelve French officials, who had 48 hours to leave the Algerian territory, then we will have no choice but to take similar measures,” he warns about France 2 Jean-Noël Barrot.
“We are ready to act, we are ready to take similar measures. There are some hours to the Algerian authorities to return to their decision, which is very unfortunate,” he adds.
According to Algeria, it is Bruno Retailleau, Interior Minister, who entails “all responsibility” of these renewed tensions between Algiers and Paris. But for Jean-Noël Barrot, the tenant of Beauvau “has nothing to do with this judicial issue. Justice is independent, it is a legal procedure that has begun for months and that has nothing to do with the dialogue we returned to occupy a few weeks ago with the Algerian government.”
A line of defense of the Interior Minister in which Gérald Darmanin, guardian of the stamps, joined on Tuesday in RTL, claiming that “insults and personal attacks for which the Interior Minister is not worthy of Algeria.”
If it ensures that “the contact is not broken,” the Chief of French diplomacy “hopes that the Algerian authorities return to their decision.” But “if they choose the climb, we will respond with the greatest firmness.”
Source: BFM TV
