Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Algeria scheduled for mid-March has been postponed indefinitely, an Iranian foreign ministry official said.
Algeria’s Echorouk newspaper yesterday reported a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, Bahram Qasemi, saying: “President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to three African countries, including Algeria, was due to take place before the Persian new year celebration Nowroz,” on 21 March. He added that the visit will no longer take place then.
“The visit will not be complete on that date, and we will determine the date later to give more opportunity to study the rest of the agreements and technical mechanisms.”
However, the newspaper pointed out that, since the Iranian Ambassador in Algeria, Reza Ameri announced Rouhani’s visit to the North African country, social media activists have launched a campaign opposing the visit.
The paper said the activists refuse Rouhani’s visit for fear of Iran’s interference in their country’s internal affairs as it does with many other Arab countries like Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
Meanwhile, the paper noted that the volume of mutual official visits between Algeria and Iran, reflects the growing bilateral relations between the two countries where Algeria is the most prominent ally of Iran in North Africa.
