Grine: “Foreign ministry is doing its work quite properly concerning recent search incident at Orly Airport”

The Communication Minister, Mr Hamid Grine, said Tuesday in Algiers that the Foreign affairs Ministry is doing “quite properly” its work about last Saturday’s search incident at Orly international airport in Paris.

“A detailed report” on the incident was sent to the Foreign Ministry which “is doing its job very properly, said Mr. Grine to the press on the sidelines of the El-Moudjahid daily forum.

He stressed that after the reaction of the foreign ministry which “in charge of everything related to international affairs”, the Ministry of Communication, “does not say any word” while stressing that “I am Minister of Communication in Algeria and not abroad.”

Asked about the impact that could cause the incident on French-Algerian relations, the minister declined to comment on the matter.

Following this incident which befell  Mr. Grine at Orly airport in Paris, the Foreign Ministry summoned Sunday the ambassador of France in Algeria, Bernard Emie for explanations pointing out that such a practice was “unacceptable”.

The Executive Director of Protocol at the Foreign Ministry expressed to The French diplomat the “disapproval of the Algerian authorities of all attitudes contrary to diplomatic practices, which are in flagrant mismatch with the quality of relations between Algeria and France and the shared ambition of both countries hoist them to the exceptional partnership level “.

In a reaction, the French Ministry spokesman for Foreign Affairs and International Development, Romain Nadal, described the search of Algerian officials in French airports as “a particularly unfortunate incident,” while assuring that the French authorities “will see to it that this type of incident does not occur again”.

Meanwhile, the communication minister affirmed during Tuesday’s  El Moudjahid daily forum that there will be “something new” in the next few days about the accreditation file of private TV channels in Algeria.

“We are going to study the fate of the private television channels now operating in Algeria and there will be something new in the coming days,” he said adding that out of 43 operating private TV channels, only 5 of them have up to now secured the required official certification.