Algerian president rules out normalizing relations with France

By Abbas Mimouni

ALGIERS, Algeria (AA) – Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has ruled out resuming normal relations with France due to what he described as "very dangerous" statements by President Emmanuel Macron.

Tebboune’s remarks came during an interview with the German newspaper Der Spiegel at the presidential palace in Algiers published on Friday.

“No Algerian would accept that I resumed contacts with those who hurled such insults,” the Algerian president responded when asked whether relations between Algiers and Paris will return to normal soon.

Since late September, tensions have escalated between Algeria and France over remarks made by Macron that the Algerian nation did not exist before the French colonial rule and that another colonization preceded that by his own country, sparking a storm of condemnations in Algeria.

In a bid to palliate its atrocious colonial past, Macron claimed that “there was a colonization before the French colonial rule” in Algeria, alluding to the Ottoman presence in the country between 1514 and 1830.

Algeria responded by recalling its ambassador in Paris and banning French military aircraft from using Algerian airspace on Oct. 3.

Tebboune said that he was "very upset" with his French counterpart because of his “very dangerous" statements.

"The history of the peoples should not be compromised and Algerians should not be humiliated," the Algerian president said in reference to Macron's comments on Algeria's history.

*Writing by Ibrahim Mukhtar in Ankara