ALGIERS: France said Sunday it had ended months of tensions over a visa dispute with Algeria, just days after Paris and Rabat made a similar announcement.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, on a visit to the capital Algiers, announced a return “to a normal consular relationship” with Algeria, according to a statement posted on Twitter.
In September 2021, Paris reduced visa quotas to its former colonies of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, in a bid to encourage the countries to cooperate against irregular migration.
Paris slashed rates by 30 percent for Tunisia, and 50 percent for Algeria and Morocco, in the hopes the countries would repatriate their citizens living in France as irregular migrants.
The move sparked widespread public anger.
France restored visa rates with Tunisia to pre-Covid levels in August, and on Friday, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said Paris had returned to “full consular cooperation” with Morocco.
Consular ties with both Algeria and Morocco were effective since December 12, Paris has said.
On Sunday, Darmanin praised an “extremely strong relationship” between Paris and Algiers.
France and Algeria mend ties after visa row
https://arab.news/8nnt9
France and Algeria mend ties after visa row
- France reduced visas granted to Algerians, Moroccans and Tunisians last year to encourage countries’ cooperation against irregular migration
Libya holds funeral for military officials killed in plane crash
- Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah praises Gen. Mohammed Ali Ahmad Al-Haddad for organizing the military
TRIPOLI: Libya on Saturday held a military funeral for the military chief of western Libya and four of his officers who died in a plane crash in Turkiye.
The bodies arrived at Tripoli International Airport in caskets draped with Libyan flags and were carried in a funeral procession with soldiers holding their photographs.
The private jet with Gen. Mohammed Ali Ahmad Al-Haddad, four other military officers, and three crew members crashed on Tuesday after taking off from Ankara, Turkiye’s capital, killing everyone on board. Libyan officials said a technical malfunction on the plane caused the crash, but the investigation is still ongoing in coordination with Turkiye.
Libya plunged into chaos after the country’s 2011 uprising toppled and killed longtime leader Muammar Qaddafi. The country split, with rival administrations in the east and west.
Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah’s government governs the country from Tripoli, and Prime Minister Ossama Hammad’s administration governs the east.
Dbeibah praised Al-Haddad during a funeral speech for organizing the military “despite overwhelming darkness and outlaw groups.”
Al-Haddad played a crucial role in the ongoing, UN-brokered efforts to unify Libya’s military, which has split, much like Libya’s institutions.
“Our martyrs weren’t just military leaders but also statesmen who were wise and disciplined and carried responsibility and believed that the national Libyan army is the country’s shield and ... that building institutions is the real path toward a stable and secure Libya,” Dbeibah said.
The burial will take place on Sunday in Misrata, about 200 km east of Tripoli, officials said.
The crash took place as the delegation was returning to Tripoli from Ankara, where it was holding defense talks aimed at boosting military cooperation.
A funeral ceremony was also held at Murted airfield base near Ankara, attended by the Turkish military chief and the defense minister.
Military chief Gen. Selcuk Bayraktaroglu also accompanied the bodies on the plane to Libya, Turkish public broadcaster TRT reported.
Two French crew members of a Falcon 50 jet died in the crash, a French diplomatic source said.
The source did not identify the French crew members but said the French Foreign Ministry was in contact with their families and providing them with assistance.
The Dassault Falcon 50 is a French-made long-range business jet.
The one that went down was chartered by a Malta-based private company, Harmony Jets, which, according to its website, performs maintenance in Lyon, France.
Harmony Jets declined to give information about the nationalities or identities of the crew on its plane.
Airport Haber, a Turkish site specialized in aeronautical news, said the pilot and copilot were both French and cited a Greek newspaper report that a Greek cabin attendant had joined the company two months ago.
France’s BEA, which handles civil aviation investigations, said on X that it was participating in the probe into the crash launched by Turkiye.
Turkiye’s transport minister, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, said the flight recorders would be analyzed in a “neutral” country.
Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said contact had been made with Germany to carry out that.
