dpa
Algiers
Algeria recalled its ambassador to France on Tuesday to protest Paris’ backing of Morocco’s autonomy plan for a long-running territorial dispute over Western Sahara.
"The French government declared its definitive and explicit support for the colonial reality imposed on the Western Sahara region,” Algeria’s foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the official APS news agency. "This step, which no previous French government did, has been taken by the current government with great disdain and disregard and without any insightful evaluation of the consequences,” it added.
The move came hours after Morocco said that French President Emmanuel Macron wrote, in a letter to Moroccan King Mohammed VI, that he "considers that the present and future of Western Sahara lies within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty.” Western Sahara, claimed by Morocco, was a Spanish colony until 1975. After Spain’s withdrawal, Morocco annexed parts of the territory.