France will expel Algerian diplomats in response to plans by Algiers to send more French officials home, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Wednesday, as relations between the countries deteriorate.
Relations between Algeria and France, the former colonial power in Africa's largest nation by land area, have been beset by a series of problems in recent months.
Barrot told the BFMTV broadcaster that he would summon Algeria's charge d'affaires to inform him of the decision that he said was "perfectly proportionate at this point" to the Algerian move, which he called "unjustified and unjustifiable".
Barrot had already on Monday announced that France would respond "immediately, firmly" after Algeria summoned the charge d'affaires of the French embassy in Algiers on Sunday to notify him of the expulsions of the French officials from Algerian territory.
The officials concerned are on temporary reinforcement missions, a French diplomatic source said, without specifying how many were concerned or when the expulsions would take effect.
France had in April ordered the expulsion of 12 Algerian diplomats and consular officials and recalled its ambassador, after Algeria ordered 12 French officials to leave in response to the arrest of an Algerian official in France.
Relations became strained last year when France recognized Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, where Algeria backs the pro-independence Polisario Front.
Ties soured further when Algeria arrested and jailed French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal in November on national security charges.
As well as contemporary problems, relations are shadowed by the 1954-1962 war that led to Algeria's independence from France.
With AFP
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