Reopening of borders between Algeria and Morocco, Tebboune sets a condition

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has set a new condition for the reopening of its land borders with Morocco, closed since 1994. And it is the Minister of Communication, government spokesman, Ammar Belhimer, who has been mandated to make it public.

The reopening of land borders between Algeria and Morocco is obviously not for tomorrow. This is the main point to be retained from the latest statements of the Algerian Minister of Communication, Ammar Belhimer, on the subject. « The request to reopen the borders by Moroccan officials is not enough, because they must have good intentions and take the necessary measures to stop the violations and crimes against Algeria at the borders, including trafficking in arms and drugs, » he demanded in an interview with the Arabic Post website.

The accusation of « arms trafficking » against Morocco was the watchword of all Algerian ministers and generals during the black decade (1992-1999) following the abortion of the electoral process in December 1991. Despite this, it disappeared from the political landscape with the advent of Abdelaziz Bouteflika as president in 1999.

Since then, Algerian officials have invoked three conditions: the end of the media campaign against their country, an end to the massive infiltration of drugs from Morocco and the admission of Algeria’s support to the Polisario Front.

For the record, the candidate Abdelmadjid Tebboune had conditioned a possible return to the order that prevailed before 1994 to the « presentation of official apologies » by Morocco, considering, in statements to the press, that « the Algerian people were humiliated » the day Rabat closed the land borders.