Sid Ahmed Ghozali: “Algeria Had Many Reasons To Sever Ties With Iran”

Former Prime Minister, Sid Ahmad Ghozali, returned to his term as Prime Minister in the early 1990s and explained some of the crucial decisions which he took that days, including the decision to cut relationships with the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1993.

Ghozali explained that he is the one who suggested to the Algerian authorities to sever ties with Iran, and wrote: “We learned that they (the Iranians) supported the terrorists with money and training, and supported them politically…. this is why we sever ties”.

Ghazali, who was head of the so-called “National Council of Iranian Resistance”, is the only Algerian politician to support the Iranian opposition, as he was active in many pro-Paris demonstrations and is one of the most vocal critics of the current Iranian authorities.

He also served as Foreign Minister between September 5, 1989 and June 5, 1991, and wrote in the London-based Arabic daily Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat: “The late President Boudiaf was the one who decided to sever ties on the proposal of my government, and the implementation came after his assassination”.

Algeria had accused Iran of supporting the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) with money and weapons, while the country was drifting strongly towards the security crisis that followed the decision to stop the electoral process, while the FIS party was just around the corner from a sweeping victory in the second round of legislative elections, that took place in December 1991.

It is known that the decision to sever ties between the two countries came after a series of warnings that were issued by Algeria to Tehran on this day, which began in January 1992 requesting the withdrawal of ambassadors from both countries in response to Tehran’s condemnation of the abolition of the electoral process and the reduction of its diplomatic representation, and relationships were no longer normal until President Bouteflika came to power In the late 1990s.

Ghozali accused Tehran of spreading Shi’ism and some practices that are alien to the Algerian society: “We then learned that the Iranians are working through their cells inside Algeria and through the promotion of fun marriage, they began to attract and recruit Algerian youth, and more than that, Ali Akbar Velayati” who was Iran Foreign Minister at the time: “You have allowed the Salafism from Saudi Arabia to promote Wahhabism in your country. Let us also promote Shi’ism”.

Ghozali explains his support for the Iranian opposition saying: ” “I have known the Iranians since the time of the Shah in the framework of OPEC … Our relationships with Iran and the Shah were cold.. After the revolution, Algeria was against the war against Iran, and remained neutral in the Iraq – Iran war, and it played as an honest mediator in solving the crisis of the American hostages between Iran and the United States”.

He explained the he met with the Iranian opposition thanks to “the former French Foreign Minister, Claude Chaisson, with whom I had intimate and even family ties, as he introduced me to the Iranian Khalq War Veterans Organization and gave me special information in this area, then my ties with Iran opposition begun…”, accusing the regime of mullahs of killing “the largest number of Muslims from any other country in modern times”.