Algeria's foreign ministry has summoned the French ambassador to reprimand him for what it said were efforts to destabilise the country, several Algerian media outlets reported on Sunday.
The French ambassador, Stephane Romatet, was "informed of the firm disapproval of the highest Algerian authorities in the face of the numerous French provocations and hostile acts," the government-owned daily El Moudjahid reported.
According to Le Soir d'Algerie, the Algerian officials "made a point of clearly identifying the origin of these malicious acts, the French DGSE" intelligence service.
El Moudjahid said the French spy services were seeking to recruit "former terrorists" to "destabilise" the North African country.
Le Soir d'Algerie said French diplomats and agents had organised a series of meetings with people showing a "declared and permanent hostility towards Algerian institutions".
The heightened tensions between Algiers and Paris come while French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal has been in detention for nearly a month in Algeria, accused of "attacking territorial integrity".
Franco-Algerian writer Sansal held in Algeria on state security charges
According to Paris-based newspaper Le Monde, his November 16 arrest in Algiers could be due to his statements on a far-right French media outlet where he repeated Morocco's claims that its territory had been truncated in favour of Algeria under French colonial rule.
Algeria had already withdrawn its ambassador to France over the summer after the French government supported a Moroccan plan for the Western Sahara that allows the contested region some autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty.
Algeria recalls ambassador after France backs Moroccan plan for Western Sahara
Algeria has historically supported the region's Polisario separatist movement.
(AFP)
