Tunisia's Ambassador To Russia: “Algeria's Internal, External Policies Are Fortified Against Chaos”

Algeria’s well-calculated domestic and foreign policies make of it a leading political and economic pole in the Maghreb region, and did not allow it to live chaos, Tunisia’s ambassador to Russia, Mohamed Ali al-Shehi, said.

The Tunisian diplomat told the Corriere newspaper for military industry, in response to the question about what protected Algeria and Tunisia from the Libyan situation: “Algeria opposed the intervention of the West in the events in Libya and did not allow the use of its territory for aggression”.

“The active political interaction with Algeria did not allow the transition of the Libyan situation to Tunisia.”

It is worth noting that the Algerian natural gas is being transported, through Tunisia to Italy and from Italy to the European Union, through transcontinental pipelines for more than a decade, and new projects in the same direction are developed in Europe.

Al-Shehi said, according to the website of Russia Today channel, that the gas pipelines are working steadily and are due to increase their capacity and build additional branches, adding that Algeria is still a major source of LNG not only in the EU but also in the United States .

“It is clear that these factors continue to force the West to adopt a less subversive policy towards Algeria and Tunisia. At the same time, there is the largest naval base in the Maghreb, which remained under French control even after the independence of Algeria and Tunisia in 1962 and 1956 respectively”.

With regard to the fight against terrorism, al-Shehi asserted that the successful military operations against terrorist groups can only temporarily weaken their activity. Moreover, according to the Ambassador, “border control in many countries of the Near and Middle East and Libya has become geographically understandable, which greatly facilitates the redeployment of terrorists.”

The newspaper also reported that by 2010-2011, plans to redraw the borders of many Maghreb countries were drawn up in the West, and the events of the “Arab Spring” became an incentive for the implementation of plans that aimed primarily at controlling the vast oil and gas resources and transport routes.

“The economic and social development that took place with the help of the Soviet Union in Syria, Libya, Iraq, Egypt, and other countries in the region in the 1960s and 1980s, and after 1991 (the collapse of the Soviet Union), NATO countries dominated the region, but also by expanding their areas of influence there. As is known, this is also done with the help of extremist groups that were created with the help of the intelligence of these countries.