Sharjah ruler apologises for comments on Algerian independence

The Ruler of Sharjah, Sultan Bin Mohammed Al-Qasimi, has apologised to Algeria after statements made last week where he stated that the French General Charles de Gaulle only granted independence to the north African state to satisfy the late Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser.

“If our brothers in Algeria saw this as an injustice against them, I apologise for that and for them all,” a UAE news agency quoted Al-Qasimi as saying.

#حاكم_الشارقة : الأشقاء في الجزائر لهم كل الود والاحترام وحديثي في معرض لندن فهم خطأ بسبب الاختصار. pic.twitter.com/H5EvdRGmYC

— إذاعة الشارقة (@sharjah_radio) March 23, 2017

“I am not ignorant of the history and I know the history of Algeria well and all what I said at the London Book Fair was to talk about the friendliness that was between de Gaulle and the culture minister and how it had affected him a lot and perhaps my statements were misunderstood [because they were shortened].”

“On March 16, 1986, I paid an official visit to the Algerian capital, where I gave a lecture in which I praised the heroism of the Algerian Liberation Front and described the jihad that existed in the mountains, which accompanied the cries of ‘Allah Akbar’ that spread throughout the whole region. Jihad was described in the mountains of Algeria,” he further explained in a statement.

Read: Sharjah ruler: Algerian Independence was offered by de Gaulle to Gamal Abdul Nasser

The UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, previously stated that “the UAE’s love for Algeria, its revolution and its sacrifices should not be questioned.”

“The Algerian revolution is one of the most important chapters of national liberation and a milestone in dismantling the era of European colonialism,” he further explained.

Prime Minister Abdulmalek Sellal also received a phone call from Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, deputy prime minister and minister of presidential affairs, in which he praised “the strong historical and brotherly relations between the UAE and Algeria,” according to the UAE news agency.