A senior Algerian official said on Thursday that his country refuses to “play the role of regional policeman” in North Africa by resorting to military solutions to solve the crisis in neighbouring countries like Libya, Anadolu has reported.
Kamal Razak Barah is an adviser on terrorism to Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. “There are countries that accept carrying out tasks by proxy,” he told Algerian State Radio, “but we’re not the policeman of the region, and we reject interference in the internal affairs of other countries, just as we do not accept external interference in our domestic affairs.” He insisted that Algeria wants to protect the independence of its internal decisions.
Barah made his comments in response to a question about his country’s preference for political solutions to the crises in the region such as those in Libya and Mali. He rejected the possibility of military intervention in any of them.
“We do not want to appear as a regional power that wants to show off its strength for dominance here and there, but we want to help the neighbouring countries through peaceful dialogue and international legitimacy to achieve the ways and means that can help in solving their problems,” said Barah. “Algeria’s constitution prohibits its army’s military intervention on the foreign military fronts, as we dedicate our diplomacy to serve the region.”
This was a reference to Article 26 of the Algerian Constitution, in which it is stated, “Algeria does not resort to war in order to undermine the legitimate sovereignty and freedom of other peoples, and it does its best to settle international disputes by peaceful means.”
Algeria has opposed calls for military intervention in Libya on several occasions, stressing that the political solution is the only way to get out of the crisis. In addition, since last July it has led international mediation efforts to resolve the crisis in northern Mali, which ended with the signing of a peace agreement between the Bamako government and rebel movements. It also moved months ago to mediate in the Libyan crisis.
On the latter, Barah said that it is “more complicated” than Mali. The reason for this, he claims, is the tribal character in Libyan society as well as foreign interference with different agendas. “There are also hundreds of armed militias and a proliferation of terrorist groups,” he added.