Algeria welcomes them to the ranks of “reasonable” French comments Emmanuel Macron News

The Algerian foreign minister said a statement from Macron’s office expressing remorse for the latest conflict shows respect for Algeria.

Algeria has welcomed comments from the office of French President Emmanuel Macron, expressing remorse for the conflict caused by criticism of the former French colony.

Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra also confirmed on Wednesday that Algerian officials would attend a conference on Libya in Paris, although President Abdelmadjid Tebboune himself did not.

Macron’s office statement “contained reasonable ideas that respect Algeria, its history, past and present, and that respect Algerian sovereignty,” Lamamra told Algerian diplomats.

Macron was accused in October of rewriting history in the Algerian system of government and promoting hatred against the French, but his office on Tuesday stressed its “greatest respect” for the North African country.

“The President regrets the controversy and misunderstandings generated by the reported statements and I will add that President Macron has the utmost respect for the Algerian nation, its history and Algerian sovereignty,” the official said.

“It is blindly linked to the development of our two countries on both sides for the benefit of the Algerian and French populations and also to face the great challenge of the region, starting with Libya.”

The exchange is preparing France for a summit on a Libyan neighbor devastated by the Algerian war on Friday, with a view to holding elections in December.

Macron invited Tebboune to the conference.

“It was decided that Algeria would participate in the conference, but not at the level of the President of the Republic,” Lamamra said on Wednesday.

“The conditions are sufficient (for him) to attend the conference in person, despite his commitment to the effective role of Algeria along with the Libyan brothers and the fact that the Libyan cause has pushed for the desired peaceful and democratic solution.”

Relations between France and Algeria have been close for a large part of the 60 years since the former French colony gained independence after a savage war.

Since his election in 2017, Macron has gone further than his predecessor during the 130-year occupation in the face of French abuses, but relations deteriorated again in October after Algeria’s “political-military system” was accused of rewriting the country’s history. Hatred of France ”.

In statements to the descendants of pro-independence fighters published in the newspaper Le Monde, Macron also questioned whether Algeria existed as a nation before the French invasion in the 1800s.

This provoked a strong reaction in Algiers, following the decision to significantly reduce the number of visas that Paris gives to citizens of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia a month earlier.

Algiers withdrew its ambassador and banned French military aircraft from its airspace, which are regularly used for operations in West Africa.

Macron tried to resolve the barriers with Tebboun, but the Algerian leader accused him of criticizing Algeria for its election victory and “completely in vain” reviving an old conflict.

US Vice President Kamala Harris and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will attend the Libyan conference.