Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune returned on Saturday, during a talk show, to relations with Morocco, the Sahara issue, tensions with the United Arab Emirates and the initiative for a Maghreb consultation framework.
Morocco and the United States are finalizing the preparations for the 2024 edition of African Lion, the military exercises they co-organize each year in the kingdom. As in the previous year, the Spanish army will not participate in this twentieth edition scheduled for late May.
Algeria looks askance at the joint organization by Morocco and the United States of "African Lion 2024", the largest military exercise in Africa, on Moroccan territory, particularly in the Sahara. A former Algerian minister is expressing his opposition and calling on Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, to cancel it.
In his latest periodic interview with the Algerian press, the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, discussed the creation of the Maghreb bloc and the issue of the Sahara, while extending a hand to Morocco, a neighboring country with which Algeria, the protector of the Polisario, unilaterally severed diplomatic relations in August 2021.
The executive office of the International Assembly for the Support of Families of Moroccan Origin Expelled from Algeria (CiMEA) held its first session of the year on Monday. On the agenda, the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the tragedy of the expulsion of Moroccans from Algeria on December 8, 1975.
Algerian internet users have published information in recent hours on social media claiming that Morocco would have used the image of the selham, "an Algerian heritage," during a Moroccan cultural event. These publications are false and unfounded.
Algeria has just appointed two new consuls in Morocco. A first since 2021, the year during which the country of Abdelmadjid Tebboune unilaterally decided to break off its diplomatic relations with the kingdom.
The French government has put in place new mechanisms, some of which concern the control of retirees receiving a French pension abroad, particularly in Morocco and Algeria, in order to fight against social fraud.
Ahmed Attaf, Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated that Morocco’s expropriation of Algerian state property in Rabat is a "closed file".
The Polisario, protected by Algeria, accuses France of obstructing the restoration of peace and stability in the North-West African region, and denounces its blatant complicity with Morocco, which hinders the unity of the peoples of the Greater Maghreb and cooperation and integration between its countries.
Former Al Hoceima MP Saïd Chaou blames Algeria for having authorized the pseudo Rif National Party (PNR), created in Brussels (Belgium) in September 2023 and known for its aspirations for independence of the Rif in Morocco, to inaugurate its official representation in the upscale neighborhoods of Algiers, in Poirson, in a villa belonging to the authorities.
Relations between Morocco and France have experienced strong tensions in recent years for various reasons, including the rapprochement with Algeria, Morocco’s neighboring rival, and Paris’s reluctance to recognize the Moroccanness of the Sahara, as already done by the United States, Spain, Israel and Germany. Today, the power of Emmanuel Macron is working to turn the page on tensions.