Aissa replies to his Saudi counterpart: “Algeria refuses to be involved in inter-communal conflicts”

The Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments, Mohamed Aissa said Sunday in Algiers that Algeria refuses to be involved in inter-communal conflicts.

In a statement to the press on the sidelines of the official launch of the electronic accommodation for the 2016 Hajj season, the Minister said that Algeria “refuses adamantly to be drawn into inter-communal conflicts wherever they may be.”

To a question on the statement made of late by the Saudi Minister of Hajj saying that “there’s been no Iranian infiltration into the Algerian Hajj mission,” Mr. Aissa said he had “information, not rumors” about this very question, stressing that he didn’t want to “tarnish the mission of the National Office of Hajj and Umrah by political issues.”

“Some malevolent circles seek to implicate in the inter-community world conflict,” he said, while stating that the President of the Republic himself “refuses to interfere in these matters and thereby Algeria has never been involved in inter-communal conflicts and never will. “

Moreover, Mr Mohamed Aissa said 500 Algerian Hadjis affected by chronic diseases have been provided, for the first time, with electronic tags to monitor their health while in the Two Holy Mosques of Islam, stressing that this first experiment of its kind, will become widespread in the coming years.

The electronic tag has a chip containing all the information on the health status of the Algerian Hadji selected by the Ministry of Health, Population and Hospital Reform to allow the Hajj mission to intervene in case of emergency, he explained.

He indicated to this effect, that this commendable progress was achieved thanks to the sustained efforts of the Ministries of Interior and Health and the Air Algerie airline company, recalling that Algeria will engage in 2019 in the so-called the “Hajj or Pilgrimage of comfort.”

Regarding those tourist agencies ruled out from the organization of the 2016 Hajj season, Mr Aïssa said the move was part of the scope of “measures taken to halt  the drifts and lapses recorded in the past,” adding that “some Saudi tour operators were also excluded as regards the catering to only rely on the Algerians.”

Referring to the cost of Hajj or Pilgrimage, the religious affairs minister noted that the latter “will remain unchanged in the coming years regardless of the rise of the hard currency and the Saudi Riyal,” referring for that purpose to the philanthropists who give a helping hand to their fellow countrymen.