Spokesman for Tunisia’s President Office: stupid journalists and politicians want to raise conflict between Algeria and Tunisia

Adviser Minister Spokesman for the Tunisian President’s Office Adnan Mansour criticized journalists and politicians for raising conflict between his country and Algeria. On his visit to Algiers at the head of a delegation talked about some cooperation aspects to face security challenges.

What did the Tunisian delegation bring to Algeria in these sensitive circumstances?

Political talks will be held and followed by a meeting with the head of government. The situation is sensitive on security level. We came here to confirm our strong bilateral relations as some journalists and politicians made a mistake.

Some Tunisian beginner journalists and politicians create some ideas they know they would embarrass relations with Algeria. Some of those ideas are baseless although Tunisia’s ruling party, opposition and official parties have no doubt that Algeria stands by Tunisia to face challenges. If the relations were not ideal, they would not have been targeted.

Campaigns which started by the assassination of Chokri Belaid target Algeria.

I do not call them campaigns. The same silliness and stupidity come up with the same articles. Neither official nor non official authority targets relations. Relations with Algeria have never been better than now.

Security challenge faced by Tunisia concerns Algeria as well. Because of that, we will examine the possibility of stepping up security and intelligence cooperation. We told Algerian officials we are ready to increase cooperation. I want to say that recent events in Tunisia have nothing to do with our desire to increase cooperation.

Will you ask for military back up from Algeria to face terrorists?

I said cooperation and back up exist. We will ask to increase them. I believe that Algerians are ready to accept.

What do you think about Tunisian jihadists in Syria?

We are concerned by this issue. The noose was tightened on fighters’ smugglers. As for those who went to Syria and can come back, we work on not letting them hit Tunisia or other countries. Because of that, we want to cooperate with big sister Algeria to collect information about them.

There are demands to dissolve the government.

Everyone has the right to submit requests. We do not have any intention to end protests. We are sure that we will reach a solution.

Do you believe that what happened in Egypt can not happen in Tunisia?

Yes, we do.

Will elections be held on the date announced by the head of government?

The head of government suggested to hold them in December but he does not have the prerogatives to fix the date. We hope that the elections will not be postponed to the next year.