His successor at the foreign ministry Abdelkader Messahel is a hard-line specialist in regional relations...
Algiers has been highly critical of interventions in Iraq Afghanistan and Libya by the the United States but its Minister for Maghreb and African Affairs Abdelkader Messahel concedes that military action in northern Mali may be necessary to tackle ‘drugtraffickers’ and ‘terrorists’...
In August General Carter Ham of the US Africa Command said it was likely that Boko Haram had links with Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and Al Shabaab in Somalia; a similar opinion came from Algeria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel who is well informed about AQIM’s operations...