Messahel directs a “poke” to Morocco and France and ignores Makhzen’s malignant campaign

Foreign Affairs Minister Abdelkader Messahel ignored Morocco’s reaction to last weekend’s dramatic remarks but gave a “poke” to the French authorities over a ransom paid by the latter for the release of hostage Pierre Camatte, who was held by the terrorist organization, the so-called “el Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” in northern Mali.

Mr Messahel attended the broad-based meeting and opened it with a speech on how best to combat the terrorist scourge, but he soon left the conference hall without making a declaration to the journalists attending who were expecting from him a statement about the frenzied diplomatic and media war launched by the Rabat regime against Algeria over the last two days.
While many countries attended the first Algiers meeting of the Global Counterterrorism Forum’s Working Group on West Africa, from various continents, the Forum nonetheless noted the absence of the Moroccan representation, which observers saw as an extension of the jittery Moroccan stance regarding the recent statements about Morocco’s sprawling drugs activity made by the head of the Algerian diplomacy.
The speech addressed by Mr. Messahel to the audience was diplomatic in nature, but included “messages” to some countries accused of promoting narcotics notably cannabis, as well as those that did not respect the UN resolution criminalizing ransoms paid to the terrorist groups in exchange for the release of hostages.
In his address, Mr Messahel  highlighted Algeria’s firm commitment to fighting the terrorist phenomenon as well as cooperating with the international community so as to eradicate this nefarious plague.
He said that Algeria, which “suffered during the 1990s from the scourge of the return of foreign terrorist fighters, maintains a high level of vigilance within its territory, and reiterates Algeria’s willingness to shore up its border and police cooperation with all the countries of the region”.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs also stressed “the need to work together to drain the various sources of financing of terrorism in West Africa, including hostage-taking for ransom, transnational organized crime in all its forms and today’s fruitful exploitation of illegal immigration networks, weapons, drugs and heroin, in addition to human beings’ trafficking, and money laundering that generates huge profits that allow terrorist groups to have significant financial resources to finance and continue and expand their criminal activity to other countries”.
The head of Algerian diplomacy stressed in return Algeria’s commitment to continue “to support the efforts of the United Nations to criminalize the payment of ransoms in exchange for the release of hostages, and all actions aimed at drying up various sources of financing terrorism”.
He did not mention any specific countries, but sent indirect messages to Morocco and France.
The foreign minister  pointed to the imperious need to bolster the fight against the scourge of cannabis. He referred on this point to Morocco, which is the largest producer and exporter of this type of drugs, which has invaded many African and European countries.
The assertion by the head of Algerian diplomacy of draining the sources of financing of terrorism in West Africa and the money derived from the release of hostages could also be considered a “ploy” on the part of the French authorities, as former French hostage Pierre Camatte confirmed that his release was for ransom, and this in total contradiction with the decisions of the United Nations, which approved years ago a relevant resolution initiated by  Algeria to criminalize the granting of ransoms to terrorist groups.