Algeria’s Ambassador Returns to Paris after 3-Month Dispute

Algeria’s ambassador returned to Paris on Thursday, three months after being recalled amid tensions related to the era of French colonial rule in the North African country. (Getty Images)
Algeria’s ambassador returned to Paris on Thursday, three months after being recalled amid tensions related to the era of French colonial rule in the North African country. (Getty Images)
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Algeria’s Ambassador Returns to Paris after 3-Month Dispute

Algeria’s ambassador returned to Paris on Thursday, three months after being recalled amid tensions related to the era of French colonial rule in the North African country. (Getty Images)
Algeria’s ambassador returned to Paris on Thursday, three months after being recalled amid tensions related to the era of French colonial rule in the North African country. (Getty Images)

Algeria’s ambassador returned to Paris on Thursday, three months after being recalled amid tensions related to the era of French colonial rule in the North African country.

The move was announced by Algeria's presidency.

In October, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune recalled ambassador Mohamed Antar Daoud, citing alleged “irresponsible comments” by French President Emmanuel Macron about Algeria’ s pre-colonial history and post-colonial system of government.

Algeria also refused permission for France to fly military planes in its airspace, and accused Paris of “genocide” during the colonial era.

Last month, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian sought to defuse tension by paying a visit to Algiers. The countries agreed to resume cooperation toward peace in Libya and on other international issues.

At the time, Le Drian noted the countries’ “complex history” and said he wanted to “remove misunderstandings.”

Algeria gained independence after a brutal six-year war from 1954 to 1962, following more than a century under French colonial rule.

The countries in recent years have had close economic and cultural ties, but relations took a sharp turn for the worse after France sharply curtailed visas for people from North Africa because governments there were refusing to take back migrants refused asylum in France.



Israeli Airstrike Targets Hezbollah Weapons Facility in Syria

This picture shows a crater caused by an Israeli strike on the road leading to Syria's Jousieh border crossing with Lebanon on October 28, 2024. (AFP)
This picture shows a crater caused by an Israeli strike on the road leading to Syria's Jousieh border crossing with Lebanon on October 28, 2024. (AFP)
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Israeli Airstrike Targets Hezbollah Weapons Facility in Syria

This picture shows a crater caused by an Israeli strike on the road leading to Syria's Jousieh border crossing with Lebanon on October 28, 2024. (AFP)
This picture shows a crater caused by an Israeli strike on the road leading to Syria's Jousieh border crossing with Lebanon on October 28, 2024. (AFP)

The Israeli military said it conducted an airstrike on a Hezbollah weapons storage facility in Syria on Tuesday.

The military said the strike targeted the facility run by Hezbollah’s munitions unit in the Syrian town of al-Qusayr, near the border with Lebanon. It said Hezbollah had recently expanded its facilities in the area to step up weapons smuggling into Lebanon from Syria.

The strikes hit an industrial zone in al-Qusayr, according to Syrian state media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a conflict-monitoring group. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria over recent years, primarily targeting government-controlled areas, but it rarely acknowledges or discusses these operations. The strikes often target Syrian forces or Iranian-backed groups.

On Monday, an Israeli airstrike struck near the Sayida Zeinab suburb, south of Damascus, an area where Iran-backed groups are active. The Israeli military claimed responsibility for killing the head of Hezbollah’s military branch in Syria, whom it identified as Mahmoud Mohammed Shaheen.

For the past month, Israel has been carrying out an escalated bombardment campaign in Lebanon, aiming to cripple the Hezbollah armed group, which is allied with Syria and Iran. Israel has also launched ground incursions just across the Israel-Lebanon border, saying it aims to put an end to a year of Hezbollah rocket fire into northern Israel.