Accused on several occasions of committing “hostile acts,” Morocco is not ready to give in to Algiers’ provocations. “If Algeria wants war, Morocco does not want it. Morocco will never be drawn into a spiral of violence and regional destabilization,” said an informed Moroccan source in reaction to Algiers’ claim that three of its nationals died in the Sahara, in a bombing blamed on the Moroccan army.
“If Algeria wants to drag the region into war, with provocations and threats, Morocco will not follow,” the same source added, saying that Rabat “has never targeted and will never target Algerian citizens, whatever the circumstances and provocations.”
Algeria no longer skimped on provocations against its neighbor. Algiers went so far as to accuse Morocco of being the cause of the forest fires that devastated the north of the country last August.
Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune has threatened armed conflict if Morocco’s “hostile acts” against his country continue.
“Of course, it is not easy to go towards a direct confrontation, but Algeria will go towards this possibility in case of extreme necessity. (…) He who seeks us, finds us,” he told the national media in an interview.
More recently, the Algerian president decided not to renew the contract for the operation of the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline (GME), a decision condemned internationally, considering its impact on some European countries, especially Spain, which fears a lack of supply of Algerian natural gas.
HA/fss/abj/APA