After Algeria expelled another 15 French officials, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that France would respond “immediately, firmly and proportionately” to this “incomprehensible and brutal decision,” reports France24.
Thus, tensions continue to escalate between France and its former colony of Algeria, which gained its independence after 130 years of French rule back in 1962.
FM Barrot noted that “the departure of agents on temporary missions is unjustified and unjustifiable,” adding that it has damaged French interest and thus must be answered in kind.
The saga between the two countries has been ongoing. Last summer, Macron announced French support for Morocco’s plan for the disputed territory of its southern regions, or Western Sahara, while Algeria supports the Polisario Front’s plan for independence of the area. Just this week, the French Development Agency (AFD) announced it will even invest €150 million in the territory in a rapprochement with Morocco.
Other issues have been boiling over as well, including the imprisonment of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal and the arrest and attempted expulsion of Algerian influencers for inciting violence against those opposed to the Algerian regime and, in general, hateful comments against France.
The French authorities have been vocal in their disapproval and annoyance over Algiers’ refusal to take back its nationals under an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF). Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau had even suggested France may cut the number of short-term Schengen visas issued to Algerian nationals until the government of Algeria stops preventing deportations.
As Remix News reported, French FM Jean-Noël Barrot has said that relations between France and Algeria are now “totally frozen.”
Algiers has already expelled 12 French officials from the Ministry of the Interior in mid-April, all of whom had to leave within 48 hours, followed by France doing the exact same, and now another 15 officials have been asked to leave Algeria. The message was communicated to the standing affairs officer of the French Embassy in Algeria, who had been summoned to receive the order in person by the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“This is a decision that I deplore because it is neither in the interest of Algeria nor in the interest of France,” Jean-Noël Barrot also commented.
There is, as of yet, no formal demand from the government that has been released to the press. Only the Algerian Press Agency (APS) has released the news that Algeria demands the “immediate repatriation” of all French employees appointed under “irregular conditions” due to an apparent failure “to comply with the procedures devoted to the assignment of agents to the French diplomatic and consular representations in Algeria.”
Algiers is also upset over the blocking of the approval process of two Algerian consuls general appointed in Paris and Marseille, as well as seven other consuls, who have been waiting for approval for more than five months.
Barrot admitted just this week that he had refused entry to Algerian officials, adding: “I am not ruling myself out of taking [new] measures. I won’t necessarily say when I will take them, or when I won’t. That’s how diplomacy works.”
The French ambassador to Algeria, Stéphane Romatet, was previously recalled to Paris for consultations and remains there. Paris had in fact sought to normalize relations with Algiers just recently, but tensions have escalated once again, with relations, as FM Barrot stated, “frozen.”
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