Algiers, Dec 21 (EFE).- Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf on Thursday summoned Mali’s ambassador, Mahamane Amadou Maiga, shortly after Bamako did the same, accusing Algiers of “interference” for hosting an influential religious opponent of the Malian military junta.
Attaf told the Malian ambassador of “Algeria’s firm attachment to the sovereignty of the Republic of Mali, its national unity and its territorial integrity” and its “deep conviction that only peaceful means can guarantee peace, security and stability” in Mali “in a firm, lasting and sustainable manner,” according to an official communique.
Algeria, Mali’s neighbor, has played a leading role in mediating a return to peace in northern Mali as part of the 2015 “Algiers Agreement” between Bamako and representatives of the main rebel groups in the region.
Because of this mediating role, Algiers maintains contacts with Tuareg rebel movements, and last Tuesday Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune received the influential Imam Mahmoud Dicko, a religious figure opposed to the Malian military junta.
The Malian military leadership denounced the meeting as “hostile” and “an act of interference in Mali’s internal affairs” and called on Algeria to “prefer the path of consultation with the Malian authorities, the only legitimate means of maintaining interstate exchanges with Mali’s partners.”
Attaf reminded the Malian ambassador on Thursday of the communiqué issued by his Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Dec. 13, “in which Algeria called on all Malian parties to renew their commitment to the implementation of the peace and reconciliation agreement resulting from the Algerian process.”
The head of Algerian diplomacy also said that “the recent meetings held with the leaders of the signatory movements of the peace and reconciliation agreement in Mali, which were born from the Algerian path, are fully in line with the letter and spirit of this declaration.”
He also considered that “all of Algeria’s historical contributions to the promotion of peace, security and stability in the Republic of Mali have always been based on three fundamental principles, which the country has not restricted and from which it will not deviate.” EFE
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