Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Rabat – King Mohammed VI has addressed a condolences message to Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, expressing condolences following the death of former Algerian president Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
On Friday, the Algerian government announced the death of Boutfelika after a long illness.
In his message, King Mohammed VI said he learned the news of the death of Bouteflika with “deep sorrow and deep emotion.”
Addressing President Tebboune, the monarch said he remembers “the particular ties that bound the deceased to Morocco, whether during the periods of childhood and education in the city of Oujda or during the activism for the independence of sister [country] Algeria.”
Bouteflika was born in 1937 in Morocco’s Oujda in the Oriental region.
The former Algerian president also participated in the Algerian war against French colonization between 1954 and 1962, serving as an officer in the National Liberation Front (FLN) and the National Liberation Army (ALN).
For King Mohammed VI, history “retains that the late Bouteflika marked an important phase in the modern history of Algeria.”
The King concluded his message by reiterating deep feelings of compassion to Algeria and the deceased’s family.
The message of condolences from Morocco comes at a time of escalating crisis between the two North African neighbors.
On August 24, Algeria decided to cut relations with Morocco, accusing it of causing the recent wildfires in the country’s Kabylia region.
Morocco rejected the “fallacious” accusations, saying it “regretted Algeria’s unilateral and unjustified” decision to sever ties.
Rabat also reiterated its determination to continue to remain a credible and loyal partner for the Algerian people despite escalating tensions and widening political disagreements with Algiers.
The Algerian government’s decision to end all diplomatic relations with Morocco came just weeks after Morocco urged its eastern neighbor to engage in a dialogue to settle the decades-long climate of mutual distrust and cold relations between the two countries.
In his Throne Day speech in July, King Mohammed VI called for the restoration of relations, emphasizing that the stability of Algeria is a top concern for Morocco.
“I believe that the security and stability of Algeria and the tranquility of its people are inseparable from the security and stability of Morocco, and vice versa: what affects Morocco will also affect Algeria, for the two countries are like one and the same body,” he said.
