ALGIERS — Algeria's Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra said Tuesday that
his country has severed diplomatic relations with Morocco due to its
"hostile actions".
اضافة اعلان
The move comes after Algeria last week said it would review its
relations with Morocco after accusing it of complicity in deadly forest fires that
ravaged the country's north.
"Algeria has decided to cut diplomatic relations with the Kingdom of
Morocco from today," the minister announced during a press conference.
"History has shown that the Kingdom of Morocco has never stopped
carrying out hostile actions against Algeria," Lamamra added.
The
forest fires in Algeria, which broke out on August 9 amid a blistering
heat wave, burned tens of thousands of hectares of forest and killed at least
90 people, including more than 30 soldiers.
Algerian authorities have pointed the finger for the fires at the
independence movement of the mainly Berber region of Kabylie, which extends
along the Mediterranean coast east of the capital Algiers.
The authorities have also accused the Movement for Self-determination of
Kabylie (MAK) of involvement in the lynching of a man falsely accused of arson,
an incident that sparked outrage.
Algeria last week accused Morocco of supporting the MAK, which it classifies
as a "terrorist organization."
"The incessant hostile acts carried out by Morocco against Algeria have
necessitated the review of relations between the two countries," a
presidency statement said last week.
It also said there would be an "intensification of security controls on
the western borders" with Morocco.
The border between Algeria and Morocco has been closed since 1994.
Algeria's foreign minister on Tuesday also accused Morocco's leaders of
"responsibility for repeated crises" and behavior that has "led
to conflict instead of integration" in North Africa.
Relations between Algiers and Rabat have been fraught in past decades,
especially over the flashpoint issue of the disputed Western Sahara.
Morocco considers the former Spanish colony an integral part of its kingdom,
but Algeria has backed the Polisario movement which seeks independence there.
Last month, Algeria recalled its ambassador in Morocco for consultations
after Morocco's envoy to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, expressed support for
self-determination for the Kabylie region.
At the time, Algeria's foreign ministry said Morocco thus "publicly and
explicitly supports an alleged right to self-determination of the Kabylie
people."
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