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«Morocco is a brother country and if Moroccans have problems with us, they can tell us», Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune said on Sunday.
Interviewed by Algerian newspaper Le soir d'Algérie, President Tebboune addressed Moroccan-Algerian relations, stressing that «the two peoples love each other». «We are frank and I have said on several occasions that Algeria has no problem with Morocco», he recalled before insisting that for his country, «the question of the Sahara is a matter of decolonization».
Abdelmadjid Tebboune argued that «even the late King Hassan II agreed» with this position. «When he came to Algeria with King Fahd of Saudi Arabia to meet with the Algerian president, the three leaders agreed that this issue should remain in the hands of the UN and that diplomatic ties should resume (between Morocco and Algeria), which was done from 1989 to 1994», he recalled.
The Algerian president assured that he «never defamed or insulted Morocco». «Our press has never done it», he said, suggesting that it is the Moroccan press and officials of the Kingdom who would be insulting Algeria. «To each their own culture», he added.
Algeria and the Libyan and Malian crises
During the same TV interview, the Algerian president sent several messages to Rabat on the Libyan and Malian issues. Thus, on the first question, Abdelmadjid Tebboune was keen to attribute the success of the dialogue between the parties that Bouznika hosted at the beginning of September, to the United Nations and Libyan parties, without mentioning Morocco.
«We said that the Libyan crisis is ours and that no dialogue will take place without us and I repeat it», he said. «In any case, what was decided recently, with the approval of the UN, will raise another form of legitimacy. The United Nations do not reject the idea of elections and we had a proposal for provisional legitimacy, like the one we adopted in Algeria in 1992», he stressed.
«We will impose ourselves to participate in the process of finding a solution in Libya. We are neighbors, with more than 1,000 kilometers of borders. So, we have an idea of what is happening in Libya and whatever the solution, it must include us».
Abdelmadjid Tebboune
On the Malian crisis, which also interests Morocco, the Algerian president lambasted the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), accusing it of not having consulted with Algeria in its attempt to propose a solution to the crisis.
«The solution to the Malian crisis will be 90% Algerian and we affirm that the solution to the problem of northern Mali will not go beyond the framework of the Algiers Accord (signed on May 15 and June 20, 2015). Our Minister of Foreign Affairs will soon be visiting this country to closely follow the issue», he announced.
Abdelmadjid Tebboune thus reiterated his country's determination to establish itself as the main mediator for the Malian crisis, unlike the Libyan case where Morocco has succeeded in bringing together the main belligerents around the same table.
For the record, the military hold power in Mali since the putsch of August 19. Malian army representatives met, Tuesday, August 25 at the Kati base, Moroccan ambassador Hassan Naciri, 48 hours after having received the Algerian ambassador in Bamako.
