Morocco World News/ Maghreb Intelligence
September 9, 2011
Algerian leaders have not yet come to terms with the defeat of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Throughout the past ten months, Algiers had, in fact, worked hard to help the “guide of the revolution.”
According to a former Algerian minister, even though the colonel had always made the Algerian generals’ lives difficult, especially in the Sahel, he has always been a very grateful and loyal ally.
Algerian generals have benefited from the unfailing support of Gaddafi during the war against the Islamists of the FIS. In addition, in Africa, both countries pursued essentially the same goals while having different agendas. In North Africa, Gaddafi’s Libya and Algeria, in general, were an alliance that wanted to dictate their agendas to other countries in the region.
Today, Algeria does not recognize the new government in Tripoli. The members of the NTC have been able to decode statements made by Mouard Medelci, Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs. The latter has conditioned the recognition of the NTC on the formation of a government that includes all the Libyan “sensitivities”. According to a member of the rebellion, the minister was referring to the Libyan Tuareg populations. Indeed, under the instigation of the Algerian DRS (intelligence services), thousands of Tuareg fighters joined Gaddafi forces. After the capture of Tripoli, the Tuareg fighters retreated to the town of Ghadames on the Algerian border.
According to Western sources in Tunis, the DRS has been trying for ten days to encourage the Tuareg not to join the new government of Libya. Moreover, Ghadames was the scene of clashes between the armed forces of the NTC and Tuareg gunmen. According to the same sources, Algiers could recreate a Polisario-bis encouraging a Tuareg secessionist movement in southwestern Libya. According to former officers of the DGSE (Moroccan intelligence services), this will be a way to “hold at bay” the new power in Tripoli.
Indeed, Algiers fears a democratic and powerful financial Libya, in which moderate Islamists may play a role, especially as Tunisia is distancing itself from Algeria. “Out of touch with the new geostrategic reality, the Algerian government is struggling to devise a consistent line. “In Algiers, the real power is in shambles since President Bouteflika is very ill and the general Toufik “Mediene,” boss of the DRS, and Gaïd Ahmed-Salah, head of the General Staff of the NPC, have exceeded the seventy years of age”, said a senior French official, well aware of the corridors of power in Algiers.”
Editing by Benjamin Villanti.
