Terrorism: Algerian Government Threatens Paris and Washington

Added to the United States’ list of at-risk countries, Algiers could resort to the rule of reciprocity.

Will we see American citizens and Westerners submitted to the same control measures as those reserved for Algerians who are considered “menacing”? According to the Algerian Minister of the Interior, Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni, it is still a possibility, if Algeria is not taken off the blacklist established by the United States following the attempted hijacking of a Northwest Airlines flight on Dec. 25, organized by a young Nigerian, Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab.

For over a decade, Algeria has confronted terrorist violence, and now finds itself included on a blacklist instituted by the United States and France. “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”: The Algerian government has decided to apply the law of retaliation. The Algerian minister of the interior and local communities, Noureddine Yazid Zerhouni, commented favorably on the proposed reciprocity in the column of the francophone Algerian daily, L’Expression: “Yes, if it is really necessary, we will apply these measures.” Algeria could calmly demonstrate through its actions that it refuses to be included on the blacklist of countries whose citizens are submitted to specific control measures.

So as not to sour relations with Algiers, Washington judged it a wise idea to urgently dispatch Mrs. Janet Sanderson, adjunct under-secretary of state in charge of Middle Eastern Affairs, to the Algerian capital on Jan. 23, so that she could explain to her Algerian counterparts the possibility of a revision to this list, which was elaborated hastily.

Mrs. Sanderson, according to whom these new measures “can be changed,” did not seem to temper the Algerian government’s anger. In fact, according to the minister of the interior, Algeria does not want under any circumstances to bargain over “the dignity” of its citizens, whose terrorism-inflicted wounds still bleed. Algeria’s security situation, despite improvements due to the mobilization of order-keeping forces that paid a heavy price for their actions, does not seem to have convinced the Western capitals. So “wait and see” always prevails in Algero-American relations.