ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) 鈥� Algeria formally broke off diplomatic relations with neighboring Morocco on Tuesday, with the foreign minister citing a series of alleged hostile acts.
The move culminates a period of growing tension between the North African countries which are mired in a decades-long feud, with their borders closed to each other. There was no immediate reaction from Morocco.
鈥淎lgeria has decided to break diplomatic relations with Morocco starting today,鈥� Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra said at a news conference, in which he read a statement from the president.
The announcement comes nearly a week after President Abdelmadjid Tebboune told a meeting of Algeria's High Security Council that 鈥渋ncessant hostile acts perpetrated by Morocco have meant the need for a revision in relations between the two countries and the intensification of security checks" at the western borders with Morocco, the official APS news agency reported.
Both countries are allies of western nations, and the move risked complicating diplomacy in the region. Both are important in the fight against terrorism in the nearby Sahel region.
The Algerian foreign minister cited an accumulation of grievances against Morocco leading to Tuesday's decision. The criticism ranged from reported remarks by Morocco鈥檚 U.N. ambassador in mid-July to recent comments by the Israeli foreign minister on an historic visit to Morocco as part of their normalization of ties.
鈥淢orocco has turned its territory into a platform allowing foreign powers to speak with hostility about Algeria,鈥� APS quoted Lamamra as saying. For the official news agency, he was alluding to a remark by Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in Morocco this month in which he referred among other things to Algeria鈥檚 effort to stop Israel from having observer status in the African Union.
鈥淪ince 1948, no Israeli official made a hostile declaration to an Arab country from another Arab country,鈥� APS quoted Lamamra as saying.
Morocco鈥檚 U.N. ambassador allegedly said that the people of Algeria鈥檚 Berber region of Kabyle should have the right to determine their status. He also cited Algeria鈥檚 claims that Morocco backs a separatist group in Kabyle, known as MAK, which Algiers has placed on a terrorism list. Algeria has suggested that MAK had a role in wildfires this month in the Kabyle region that killed scores of people, including more than two dozen soldiers.
The issue of Kabyle recalls Algeria鈥檚 support for a bid by the Polisario Front, a pro-independence movement based in southern Algeria, for self-determination in the disputed Western Sahara that was annexed by Morocco in 1975.
Morocco wants autonomy for the region under its supervision, while Algeria wants self-determination via a referendum.
鈥淔or all these reasons, based on the facts ... I have announced, Algeria has decided to break relations,鈥� Lamamra said.
The Associated Press
