Algeria's foreign ministry has summoned the French ambassador to reprimand him for what it described as efforts to destabilize the country, several Algerian media outlets reported on Sunday.
The ambassador, Stéphane Romatet, was "informed of the firm disapproval of the highest Algerian authorities in response to numerous French provocations and hostile acts," according to the government-owned daily El Moudjahid.
According to Le Soir d'Algerie, Algerian officials "made a point of clearly identifying the source of these malicious acts, the French DGSE intelligence service."
El Moudjahid reported that the French spy agency had allegedly sought to recruit "former terrorists" to "destabilize" the North African country.
Le Soir d'Algerie added that French diplomats and agents had organized a series of meetings with individuals who were "openly and persistently hostile toward Algerian institutions."
The heightened tensions between Algiers and Paris come amid the detention of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who has been held for nearly a month in Algeria on charges of "attacking territorial integrity."
According to the Paris-based newspaper Le Monde, his November 16 arrest in Algiers may be linked to his comments on a far-right French media outlet, where he repeated Morocco's claims that its territory had been truncated in favor of Algeria during French colonial rule.
Algeria had already withdrawn its ambassador to France over the summer after the French government supported a Moroccan plan for the Western Sahara that grants the contested region some autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty. Algeria has historically supported the Polisario Front, the separatist movement in the region.
with AFP
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