France Plays With Fire, Did Not Invite Algeria To Attend A Meeting On Libya

France is practicing the policy of “hitting below the belt” against Algeria concerning the Libyan crisis these days, because it invites countries to attend an international meeting in Paris on Libya, and did not invite a country that is supposed to have a pivotal role in this issue, which is Algeria.

Despite the fact that Algeria is Libya’s neighboring country that has a significant impact on a large section of the tribes and politicians in this country, but Paris did not sent an invitation to Algeria to take part in this meeting, although it is the first which called for organizing such a meeting and called to him, and in return it invited countries that are far from Libya, but which relationships with this file cannot be deniable (…), such as Turkey, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt the eastern neighbor of Libya.

Journalists in Paris asked, on Monday, a senior official at the French Foreign Ministry, about the reason of not inviting Algeria to attend such a meeting, but the same official, did not respond to this question, arguing that he has no information.

This step can only be understood as the pursuit of the French authorities to keep Algeria away from any role in the Libyan crisis, a position that can only be read through an approach that Algeria becomes a stumbling block in front of the French agenda in the region, and in particular the Libyan crisis.

Algeria already stood strongly in the face of military intervention through which France implicated the NATO in this country outside of international law, a position that gained greater credibility with the time passing, due to the remnants of this interference in the eastern neighbor of Algeria, in the Maghreb region, in the Sahel and in the entire Sahara. 

Algeria also refused several requests by Paris about a military intervention in this country, under the fight against terrorism, as it condemned the Western and French military presence specifically in the Libyan crisis.

Algeria understands the message five on five, and did not remain idle, and confirmed to Paris that its role can not be bypassed as easily as some believe, and responded to this meeting through inviting the Chairman of the Presidential Council of the Libyan Government of National Reconciliation, Faiz Sarradj, to visit Algeria on the same day on which Paris embraced another meeting.

In this regard, Sarradj met with the Prime Minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, and the Minister of Maghreb Affairs and the African Union and the Arab League, Abdelkader Messahel, and the Interior and Local Communities Minister, Noureddine Badaoui. 

Talks between Sarradj and Algerian officials, according to APS, focused on “Evaluating the situation and the ongoing efforts in the framework of a political settlement to the crisis in Libya”, which noticed a setback in the last term, because the armed forces of the retired General Khalifa Haftar attacked the Libyan oil ports and controlled them.

Algeria’s message to Paris did not overlook a lot, and it came from the joint press conference that was held on Monday at Algiers Aurassi by both Abdelkader Messahel and his Libyan counterpart, Mohamed Tahar Siala, who asserted the need to respect international legitimacy, from which the government of Faiz Sarradj emerged, and they both reject any attempt to breathe new negotiations on the issue that was resolved by the international community (the legitimacy of Sarradj government).

Libya official confirmed by the way that Paris asked Algeria to provide a solution to reach the national reconciliation and civil harmony in order to take advantage of them in the international meeting that it embraced, which means that France excluded Algeria with premeditation from this meeting, a position that does not fit the nature of the bilateral relationships, which are said to have made strides in the era of the current president, Francois Hollande.