Le sommet Algerie- Espagne:
,
Espagne remercie l'Algerie pour la lutte contre le terrorisme en Afrique du Nord,
concernant le conflit du SO, les deux partie insistent sur les efforts de L ONU dans le but du droit international qui garanti aux Sahraouis leur droit á l autodermination!
,
Espagne remercie l'Algerie pour la lutte contre le terrorisme en Afrique du Nord,
concernant le conflit du SO, les deux partie insistent sur les efforts de L ONU dans le but du droit international qui garanti aux Sahraouis leur droit á l autodermination!
Spain Won’t Pay Ransom to Al Qaeda for Kidnapped Aid Workers
MADRID – The Spanish government on Thursday offered its full support to Algeria to stop the threat of Islamist terrorism in North Africa and reiterated that it won’t pay a ransom for three Spanish aid workers kidnapped in Mauritania by the group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero expressed this commitment to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika at a summit in Madrid.
Zapatero and Bouteflika had their respective foreign ministers, Miguel Angel Moratinos and Mourad Medelci announce at a press conference the results of the summit, which focused on the anti-terrorism fight, energy cooperation and the conflict over the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara.
With regard to the kidnapping of the Spanish aid workers, Moratinos insisted that “the Spanish government does not pay ransom.”
“That position is clear and firm,” Moratinos said, stressing that Madrid is determined to resolve the situation in a manner consistent with its international commitments to the fight against terrorism.
Albert Vilalta, 35, Alicia Gamez, 35, and Roque Pascual, 50, who work for Barcelona-Accio Solidaria, were grabbed Nov. 29 while transporting humanitarian aid on the highway that links Nouakchott, Mauritania’s capital, to Nouadhibou, the most important city in the country’s northern region.
The Spanish official thanked Algeria for the diplomatic aid it is providing to find a solution to the aid workers’ abduction, for which AQIM claimed responsibility.
Despite playing a central role at the summit, Moratinos and Medelci tiptoed around the Western Sahara conflict, in which Algeria maintains its support for the Polisario Front against Morocco, which annexed the former Spanish colony amid fierce opposition from the Saharawis.
In the final document resulting from the summit, Spain and Algeria support the efforts of the United Nations to seek a solution with regard to the right to self-determination for the Saharawi people, without mentioning the autonomy plan that Morocco is pushing in Western Sahara.
With regard to energy, the two governments will create a working group to increase cooperation on natural gas and petroleum and extend it to other areas like renewable energy.
Thirty percent of the natural gas used in Spain comes from Algeria, making that country the Iberian nation’s top supplier of the relatively clean-burning fuel.
The tight bilateral cooperation in recent years has been somewhat burdened since 2007 by two disputes between the state-run Algerian firm Sonatach and the Spanish energy firms Repsol YPF and Gas Natural, which have just finished arbitration proceedings.
Medelci emphasized the confidence existing between the two countries for resolving these problems without the need to change the existing accords.
“We have not always achieved the results we wanted, but what we’ve done is respect our commitments by, in the case of differences, ... going to arbitration,” the minister commented. EFE
MADRID – The Spanish government on Thursday offered its full support to Algeria to stop the threat of Islamist terrorism in North Africa and reiterated that it won’t pay a ransom for three Spanish aid workers kidnapped in Mauritania by the group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero expressed this commitment to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika at a summit in Madrid.
Zapatero and Bouteflika had their respective foreign ministers, Miguel Angel Moratinos and Mourad Medelci announce at a press conference the results of the summit, which focused on the anti-terrorism fight, energy cooperation and the conflict over the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara.
With regard to the kidnapping of the Spanish aid workers, Moratinos insisted that “the Spanish government does not pay ransom.”
“That position is clear and firm,” Moratinos said, stressing that Madrid is determined to resolve the situation in a manner consistent with its international commitments to the fight against terrorism.
Albert Vilalta, 35, Alicia Gamez, 35, and Roque Pascual, 50, who work for Barcelona-Accio Solidaria, were grabbed Nov. 29 while transporting humanitarian aid on the highway that links Nouakchott, Mauritania’s capital, to Nouadhibou, the most important city in the country’s northern region.
The Spanish official thanked Algeria for the diplomatic aid it is providing to find a solution to the aid workers’ abduction, for which AQIM claimed responsibility.
Despite playing a central role at the summit, Moratinos and Medelci tiptoed around the Western Sahara conflict, in which Algeria maintains its support for the Polisario Front against Morocco, which annexed the former Spanish colony amid fierce opposition from the Saharawis.
In the final document resulting from the summit, Spain and Algeria support the efforts of the United Nations to seek a solution with regard to the right to self-determination for the Saharawi people, without mentioning the autonomy plan that Morocco is pushing in Western Sahara.
With regard to energy, the two governments will create a working group to increase cooperation on natural gas and petroleum and extend it to other areas like renewable energy.
Thirty percent of the natural gas used in Spain comes from Algeria, making that country the Iberian nation’s top supplier of the relatively clean-burning fuel.
The tight bilateral cooperation in recent years has been somewhat burdened since 2007 by two disputes between the state-run Algerian firm Sonatach and the Spanish energy firms Repsol YPF and Gas Natural, which have just finished arbitration proceedings.
Medelci emphasized the confidence existing between the two countries for resolving these problems without the need to change the existing accords.
“We have not always achieved the results we wanted, but what we’ve done is respect our commitments by, in the case of differences, ... going to arbitration,” the minister commented. EFE
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