Belaid Abdeslam:“The Moroccans believe that Algeria has taken over their land”

Former Algerian Prime Minister, Belaid Abdeslam, has said during an exclusive interview with Echorouk, that there is a chorus of mendacious allegations within some Moroccan political circles alluding that Algeria has grabbed Moroccan lands in a hostile reaction to Algeria’s unswerving and principled position on the Western Sahara issue.

Belaid Abdeslam affirmed that some ill-intentioned people in Morocco were stoking tension with the aim of further deteriorating the relations between Algeria and Morocco for unbounded political designs.

He explained that these ill-advised people were being prodded by certain well-known foreign quarters hostile to Algeria and whose only goal to add fuel to the fire between the two Maghrebian neighbours.

It should be noted that Mr Belaid Abdeslam is slated to present on Friday his new book written in the French language entitled: “Economic unity in the Maghreb…is it possible?” at the Dar Khitab publishing house in the capital Algiers.

The former Algerian premier dwelt on the strained relations between Algeria and Morocco and singled out the Moroccan “Istiklal” political party which has been,as he put it, fuelling the tension among the Moroccan population by slandering Algeria and its senior officials with the covert aim of garnering spin-offs on the Moroccan political scene after dismally losing its credibility with the Royal Palace.

Belaid Abdeslam further underlined that economic Maghrebian integration had been blocked for a long time now on account of the lingering political divergences mostly between Algeria and Morocco over the long drawn-out problem of Western Sahara which is under the sole responsibility of the United Nations, he added.