Ahmad 
Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf announced the recall of the Algerian ambassador to France due to its recent position supporting Morocco’s initiative for autonomy in the Moroccan Sahara.
This announcement came during a press conference held by Attaf in the Algerian capital, where he stressed the adoption of a series of protest measures in response to what he described as “French interventions that threaten the stability of the region and hinder efforts to resolve the conflict in Western Sahara in a peaceful and political manner.”
The minister stated that the recall of the Algerian ambassador is the beginning of a series of more stringent protest measures, describing it as a “reduction in the level of diplomatic representation” to express Algeria’s condemnation and denunciation of the French position.
Attaf added that French President Emmanuel Macron informed Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune of France’s decision during the recent G7 summit in Italy, which sparked a “firm and decisive” response from the Algerian side, indicating that this French move “will not strengthen the political process, but will further complicate the current situation that the Western Sahara conflict has been experiencing for more than 17 years.”
Attaf denounced what Macron said, describing the French move as “a gift from someone who does not own to someone who does not deserve,” and hinted at the possibility of not implementing the state visit scheduled for President Tebboune to France in September due to these developments, stressing that “all necessary conclusions will be taken into account in preparation for an appropriate response to the French steps.”
It is worth noting that relations between France and Algeria are characterized by ongoing tensions resulting from the legacy of French colonialism, as Algeria demands that France acknowledge its crimes during the colonial period and offer an official apology, and also demands the return of the national archives and the skulls of Algerian resistance fighters killed during the colonial period, in addition to compensation for French nuclear tests in the Algerian desert.
Morocco is among the top 40 arms importers