Foreign Ministry: “Border shooting… mendacious allegation and Moroccan Ambassador not in the know”

Algeria’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has denied having received at his request the Moroccan Ambassador to Algiers, Abdallah Belkeziz, about the pseudo shooting incident on the Algerian-Moroccan border and described an earlier statement by Morocco’s Foreign Affairs Ministry accusing ANP troops of the alleged cross-border shooting as mendacious allegations.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry’s spokesman, Amar Belani, firmly denied on Wednesday that the Moroccan Ambassador to Algiers had been received at the Ministry’s premises about the alleged border shooting saying the fabricated incident was the work of the Moroccan press agency for still murky reasons aimed solely at fuelling diplomatic tension between the two neighbouring countries.

Mr Amar Belani indicated that if such a border incident really happened, the Moroccan Ambassador to Algiers should have contacted the official Algerian channels to make representations and not to rely on dubious media reports.

Meanwhile, Algerian Foreign Affairs Minister, Ramtane Lamamra, also said Wednesday in Algiers that it should be recalled that the Algerian – Moroccan land border had remained closed since 1994, stressing that the Algerian state was keen to apply the Algerian law and to implement as well what is induced by the closing of the borders.