French ambassador to Algiers on the brink of departing over diplomatic crisis

The French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has revealed in interview released the day before yesterday on the weekly “ Le Journal Du Dimanche” that “ The French- Algerian relations will be less” complicated” with the departure of the revolutionary leaders from power and the taking over of the post- independence generation.

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• He has further indicated “ Our relation was very sentimental, passionate and excessive to a point that everything is complicated to deal with. Algeria has always been considered as French entity by the French authorities during the colonial period and the French that established there have cherished the same rights as their fellow citizens in the mother country, adding that the fight against colonialism was among his major commitments”.
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• Reacting to the Algerian authorities’ stand after the inclusion of Algeria among the list of high- risk countries at airports’ controls, Bernard Kouchner has declared to the newspaper” It’s just a security measure and Algeria is not the only targeted country but there are 14 others included in the list… The Algerian reaction is understandable and we admit that Algeria has fought valiantly against the bloody terrorism, but we are only implementing security measures especially that France is continuously threatened by the terrorist organization Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb”.
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• The French minister’s declaration come after the will expressed by the French ambassador to Algeria, Xavier Driencourt, to depart after failing to bridge the gap between the two countries, though freshly anointed in this post. Talking in a ceremony organized at the embassy last week, the ambassador has revealed to some members of the Liberation Front Party (FLN) that he was about to leave Algeria because “ the growing tension between his country and Algeria was an impediment to his diplomatic mission”.
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