Algeria closes Libya border

Ties between the neighbor states will improve with "the return of stability" to Libya, an Algerian official said.

By Fidet Mansour for Magharebia in Algiers – 05/09/11

Algeria on Sunday (September 4th) announced the temporary closure of all border crossing points with Libya as a security precaution.

"A new situation has been created by the Libyan crisis, notably through the arms flow and the massive exodus of people from this country," Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci said.

The issue will be discussed at a September 7th-8th security meeting in Algiers, which will bring together officials from Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Algeria.

"Based on the nature of the relations between our two countries, we can only say that the relationship between us will improve with the return of stability to Libya," Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia said Sunday on the sidelines of the opening of Parliament's autumn session.

The announcement came a couple of days after Algeria's chief diplomat vowed that his country would recognize the National Transitional Council (NTC) once the body "set up a government representative of all regions".

Relations between the NTC and Algeria soured after Algeria allowed entry to Moamer Kadhafi's family members last week. The government asserted that the gesture was "strictly humanitarian", while the NTC vowed to press for extradition.

"The Libyans asked us to welcome Kadhafi's family as we would our own children," Ouyahia said on Sunday.

Medelci, meanwhile, denied that his country would welcome Kadhafi himself. "The hypothesis that Kadhafi could come knocking on our door was never considered," he told radio station Europe 1.

The foreign minister also called on Western nations to "understand the concerns of Algeria, which is witnessing a war on its border". He met with NTC chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil last Thursday at the "Friends of Libya" conference.

The Algerian official said that the Paris meeting provided an opportunity to clear up all "ambiguities", a response to French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe's earlier remarks that Algeria's stance on the conflict was "ambiguous".

In his turn, Abdel Jalil expressed hope that the bilateral relations would improve in the future, underlining the "close and warm ties between the two neighboring countries".

"Algeria has implemented all UN resolutions on Libya since the beginning of the crisis," the NTC chairman told reporters after the Paris summit, which brought together representatives of 63 nations and world bodies.

Medelci praised the decisions taken at the international conference, including "the return of frozen funds, which will enable Libya to raise US $15 billion in the short term, and the consensus that was reached on the need to work on reconciliation between all Libyans, to prevent acts of vengeance and to rebuild Libya in terms of both its institutions and its capacity to address economic and social needs".

Source: Magharebia.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/09/05/feature-01.