Bouteflika accuses Western intelligence of attempting to dismantle Arab countries

Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika accused, on Wednesday, Western intelligence agencies of working to distort Islam, creating fanatical groups and targeting Arab countries to steal their natural wealth and dismantle their internal unity.

According to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news website, in a message marking Algeria’s National Day of Army Veterans, Bouteflika said that “some intelligence agencies want to make Islam into a religion of violence, division and intolerance, even though it is the religion of unity, love and coexistence.”

Bouteflika warned of the phenomenon of terrorism which, according to him, Algeria had a bad experience with for an entire decade during the 1990s.

He said: “Algeria has regained peace and tranquillity after it was threatened by the scourge of terrorism, which destroyed lives and property.”

The Algerian president said that his country seeks to curb foreign domination and to stop the bloodshed and the dismantling of regimes, especially in neighbouring countries.

Bouteflika also stressed that: “Algeria is keen not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and to adopt dialogue and good neighbourly relations with everyone, without interfering in anyone’s affairs”. He pointed to “the importance of stability enjoyed by Algeria today, amidst a region boiling”.

Finally, he criticised what he called “local and regional groups” working to “stir up unrest and problems in the Arab countries and seeking to dominate their wealth, without calculating the dangerous consequences internally and regionally.”