It has been announced in Algiers on Saturday that the Algerian Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci will visit Libya on Monday. According . . .[restrict]to Algerian Foreign Ministry spokesman Omar Bilani, the visit is at the invitation of Libya Foreign Minister Ashour Ben Khayal.
Bilani said the visit falls within the framework of “political consultation on issues of common interest.”
He added that Algeria “expressed repeatedly and in different forums its support for the Libyan government to restore stability in the country in the face of security challenges, and to strengthen the democratic transition.”
He said that the visit would demonstrate “the will of the two countries to promote bilateral cooperation in order to upgrade them to the proper level of the historical brotherly relations that bind the two peoples.”
Relations between Algeria and the Libya have been strained over Algeria’s refusal to support the Libyan revolution last year and, since then, the asylum it has provided to members of the Qaddafi family and its rejection of Libyan demands to extradite them.
There was a softening of attitudes late last month when Ben Khayal and Medelci met at the first high-level session of the five-nation Arab Maghreb Union since 1996 in Rabat. Algeria has also been invited to next week’s regional ministerial summit in Tripoli to discuss security. However, last week, NTC chairman Mustafa Abdul Jalil said that Libya’s relations with its neighbours will depend on them handing over leading members of the Qaddafi regime. [/restrict]
