Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf announced Wednesday that his country will take additional measures against France in response to Paris' position in support of Morocco's plan for autonomy in Western Sahara.
"We will take the necessary steps to express our rejection of France's dangerous step in the region and the efforts being made in this context to find a peaceful and political solution to the Western Sahara issue," Attaf said during a press conference in Algiers.
He added that Algeria's decision to recall its ambassador from Paris for consultations is only the first step, which will be followed by other protest steps.
"This is not just recalling an ambassador for consultations, this is a reduction in the level of diplomatic representation. This is an important step to express our condemnation and denunciation" of Paris' position, he said.
He added that "the withdrawal of the ambassador is a first step that will be followed by other steps," which he did not specify.
According to the Algerian minister, French President Emmanuel Macron informed his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, of Paris' decision on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy in June.
Attaf stressed that the Algerian president's response to his French counterpart was "firm, decisive and precise" and warned that such a step "will not contribute to the revival of the political process, but will feed the impasse into which the autonomy plan has led the Sahrawi question for more than 17 years.
According to the Algerian minister, "this step, which Paris claims is aimed at reviving the political process to resolve the conflict in Western Sahara, on the contrary, contributes to perpetuating the state of stagnation from which the political process has suffered for almost two decades".
He added that the French step "can be described in a simple phrase that sums up the content of the legal value of this recognition, which is the phrase +a gift from someone who does not possess to someone who does not deserve it+".
Attaf's position comes after Macron confirmed that the Moroccan proposal "constitutes, from now on, the only basis for reaching a political solution that is fair, sustainable and negotiated, in accordance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council".
The visit was scheduled to take place in September, but Attaf hinted that the visit might not take place due to Macron's position.
"Everything that needs to be concluded will be drawn in the context of preparing a response to the step taken by France (...) There is no doubt that the planned state visit will be part of these conclusions, and I would not be surprised if I said that the French step did not contribute positively to the realization of this visit," he said.
Western Sahara is a former Spanish colony, 80% of whose territory is controlled by Morocco, which has proposed an autonomy plan for it under its sovereignty.
However, the Polisario Front, backed by Algeria, has been demanding sovereignty over the region since the Spanish occupation left in 1975 and is demanding a referendum on self-determination under the auspices of the United Nations, as stipulated in the 1991 ceasefire agreement.
The United Nations considers this region, which contains fish resources and large phosphate reserves, to be a "non-self-governing territory".
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