Algeria Demands Apology from Morocco as Condition for Reopening Borders

As a candidate in the December 2019 presidential election, Abdelmadjid Tebboune declared that he could "review the Algerian-Moroccan relations in the event that Morocco apologizes to the Algerian people, whom it accused of being the sponsor of the attack perpetrated in 1994 at the Asni hotel in Marrakech, and having followed Algeria’s unilateral decision to close its borders with the Alaouite Kingdom."

This statement by the new man in Algeria is still current. Especially since the president has often expressed his willingness to reopen Algeria’s land borders with its neighbor.

In a statement to TV Russia Today, the Algerian leader returned to the reasons that had motivated the closure of the borders. According to him, this decision is solely related to the measure taken by the kingdom in the aftermath of the August 24, 1994 attack at the Asni hotel in Marrakech. The authorities had imposed a visa on Algerians, which had obviously irritated Algiers.

Now, the reopening of land borders remains conditional on the apologies demanded from Morocco by the current Algerian president.