Morocco's Chargé d'Affaires in Algiers was summoned Sunday to the ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was received by the secretary general, Abdelhamid Senouci Bereksi, over the verbal escalation by senior Moroccan officials against Algeria, a ministry's statement has said.
"In the absence of the ambassador, the Chargé d'Affaires of the Kingdom of Morocco in Algiers was summoned, today, 19 October 2014, to the ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was received by the secretary general, Abdelhamid Senouci Bereksi," the statement underlined.
The summoning "comes as a result of the verbal escalation by senior Moroccan officials against Algeria, whose armed forces have been wrongfully accused of having shot on Moroccan civilians."
The secretary general of the ministry of Foreign Affairs "has rejected Moroccan allegations of October 18, relating to the shots attributed to Algerian soldiers," the statement said
The Algerian official expressed to the Moroccan diplomat Algeria's "exasperation" over the "recurrence" of accusations and repetitive provocations "which denote an attitude that is the exact opposite of what relations between the two countries and the two brother peoples should be."
"More than once, in the past, serious incidents involving Moroccan security forces occurred in the border area but no measure was taken by Moroccan authorities despite the numerous official steps undertaken by the Algerian side," Senouci Bereksi, told Morocco's chargé d'affaires.
The secretary general of the ministry of Foreign Affairs concluded by stressing that Algeria "will not fall into the trap of trivial one-upmanship and refrain, as it has always done, from any action and any measure that might justify escalation and exacerbate tensions it is getting down to easing, with all possible means, out of consideration for the values of fraternity and neighbourly relations."