Local analysts have described Algerian diplomacy as ‘ineffective’ and even ‘absent’, which prompted the government to design a project of four measures submitted to the approval of the president who endorsed it during a meeting this Sunday, the first working day of the week in this Muslim-majority country.

Called ‘action plan to revolutionize Algeria’s diplomatic action’, the group of decisions consists of four immediate measures, according to newspaper Al Watan (The Nation, in Arabic) that broadcasts it today in its morning editions.

Appointment of special envoys in charge of directing Algerian international action, beginning a vast action in the diplomatic corps that will cover 70 posts, organization of a conference of heads of embassies and consulates and reactivation of the general department of strategic control, are the focus of the project.

The announcement comes amid heightened tensions in the Maghreb after the rupture of Algeria’s diplomatic relations with Morocco announced days ago.

Algiers accused Rabat of supporting, along with Israel, the material perpetrators of dozens of forest fires that devastated thousands of hectares of forests in Great Kabylia (north) at the end of last August and criticized the push of the Alawite monarchy to Tel Aviv’s candidacy as an observer member at the African Union.

But the big issue in the tensions between the two North African countries is the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, whose independence movement, Polisario, Algeria has supported since its foundation as a matter of principle.

pgh/lcp/gdc