Algeria’s opposition group slams ex-FM over US-Afghanistan comments

The acting Secretary-General of Algeria’s National Organisation of Mujahideen, Mohand Ouamar Benelhadj, yesterday rebuked the country’s former foreign minister, Lakhdar Brahimi, over his recent statements about the US forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Brahimi recently said that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan was “resembling the French army withdrawal from Algeria in 1962.”

In an official YouTube video, Benelhadj described the statements as “astonishing,” adding that Brahimi was suffering from “dementia.”

“This could be the only explanation for his recent statements,” he said.

“It would never be fair to compare the French military colonial presence in Algeria, which lasted for 132 years and a million armed soldiers from NATO, with the American presence in Afghanistan,” Benelhadj stressed.

The final US forces withdrew from Afghanistan on 31 August bringing an end to a 20-year occupation of the country.

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