Drugs Create A Diplomatic Crisis Between Algeria, Morocco

Moroccan Foreign Ministry announced that the official in charge of the Algerian embassy’s affairs in Rabat and its ambassador in Algeria were summoned against the background of the statements of the Foreign Minister, Abdelkader Messahel, in which he accused Morocco of money laundering.

Morocco Foreign and Cooperation Ministry said in a statement; “On Friday evening, the official in charge of the Algerian Embassy’s affairs in Rabat was summoned to the headquarters of the Foreign and International Cooperation Ministry in light of this unacceptable development, the Kingdom’s ambassador was summoned to Algeria for consultation, without prejudice to what the national economic institutions can take, which were subject to defamation following the serious statements that were made by the Algerian Foreign and International Cooperation Minister, Abdelkader Messahel, on the subject of the African policy of the Kingdom of Morocco”.
“The embassy’s charge d’affaires was informed of the irresponsible nature of the statements that were made by the head of Algerian diplomacy, who is supposed to express the official positions of his country at the international level. In a time institutions and peoples are free to communicate freely. No one can go on indefinitely to slander and deceive public opinion or economic actors, or fool them for a long time”.
“The statements of the Algerian FM, which were issued concerning banking institutions and the National Air Transport Company, indicate the ignorance as deep and unforgivable as the basic standards of the banking system and civil aviation, both nationally and internationally”, the Morrocan statement said.
Messahel accused Morocco of laundering money from drug trafficking in banks in a number of African countries and Moroccan transport companies, which are making trips to African countries, are not only transporting passengers.
He said on the sidelines of his participation in the summer forum of the Forum of Heads of Enterprises, that Morocco is laundering money from drug trafficking, adding that this talk is founded, and many leaders and African leaders know this and acknowledge it, and “No one is intimidating us, and Moroccan transport companies that are traveling to African countries are not only transporting passengers”.
Messahel’s words came to answer some businessmen who considered Morocco a model for investment in the continent.