Algerian Military Chief Warns of ’Plots’ Against Nation, Rebuffing Morocco’s Diplomatic Overtures

A few days after the espionage allegations against Morocco, Army Corps General Saïd Chanegriha, Chief of Staff of the People’s National Army (ANP), mentioned on Tuesday, August 3, "the plots and maneuvers being hatched against" Algeria and the "conspiracies hatched against its people" during the installation of the new commander of the national gendarmerie. According to him, these plots "are not the fruit of the imagination as some skeptics claim," but "a now evident and manifest reality, the ins and outs of which are known to all."

Morocco is accused of having used the Israeli spyware Pegasus to target 6,000 phone numbers in Algeria, following the publication of the investigation by Forbidden Stories and its partners. Phones belonging to political officials, journalists, diplomats, senior officials, activists and even military personnel. A few days before this publication, Omar Hilale, Morocco’s permanent representative to the United Nations, had expressed his support for the "valiant Kabyle people" who "deserve to enjoy their right to self-determination".

"The intense and relentless campaign targeting our country and its army, through certain foreign media outlets and social networks, is but the visible part of this perfidious war declared against Algeria, as a revenge for its immutable positions on just causes, its commitment to preserving its national sovereignty, and its free and unsubmissive decisions," added Saïd Chanegriha, assuring that the determination of the ANP to "face all those who are watching" Algeria "to carry out their malicious plans, supported in this noble mission by the valiant Algerian people".