Algiers: Algeria has defended its stand against foreign military intervention in a message to Saudi Arabia, with which ties are strained over the Yemen conflict and Lebanon, national news agency APS said on Monday.
It said President Abdul Aziz Bouteflika, in a message to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, stressed that non-interference was a principle for Algiers “and not, as it may appear, a sign of opposition to Arab partners”.
He tasked his adviser Tayeb Belaiz with delivering the message to King Salman and at the same time inviting him to visit Algeria.
Algeria has refused to join a Saudi-led military coalition which has for the past year has fought against Al Houthi rebels in Yemen or to sign up to a designation by Riyadh and its Gulf neighbours of Lebanon’s Shiite militant group Hezbollah as a “terrorist” organisation.
Belaiz, quoted by APS, said Algiers always supports “peaceful political solutions” and “rejects violence, which, from its point of view, leads to more violence”.