Brussels, 08/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced on Monday 7 July that his Algerian counterpart, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, would be in Paris on 13 July for the summit on the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM). The news was confirmed by the Algerian agency, APS. After a bilateral Algerian-French meeting on the sidelines of the G8 meeting in Japan, Sarkozy said: “President Bouteflika has asked me to make his response public. He will be present at the UfM summit”. His participation is “extremely important”, he stressed, cited by APS, as Algeria plays a “central role” within the UfM.
“This is a decisive element for the success of this summit”, he said. The Algerian turnaround, after the government and the press of that country had been highly critical, cannot yet be explained. President Bouteflika had first to be reassured that there would be no “family photo” in which he would appear with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Neither can it be ruled out that this turnaround be partly due to the change in political line after the ministerial reshuffling at the end of June. Ahmed Ouyahia, liberal and open to the outside world, has replaced Abdelaziz Belkhadem, considered to be part of the Islamic movement, as prime minister.
The Libyan “guide”(Kadhafi) has officially refused to attend the Paris meeting, it was announced on Sunday by the secretary general of the Elysée, Claude Guéant, reported by the French press. “Colonel Kadhafi will not be in Paris on 13 July but he will be represented by one of his ministers, as Libya has observer status”, he explained. Kadhafi has already publicly rejected the proposed Union for the Mediterranean, saying it is an “insult” to the southern countries. Acting like this, he said, would be tantamount to creating a divide between Arabs and Africans. (F.B./transl.jl)