A delegation of politicians from Iran visited Algeria and Tunisia this week, hoping to increase Iran’s presence in Africa, find new friends after Tehran’s disastrous proxy war in Gaza, and turn the page on some unfortunate history in Algeria.
The Iranian delegation was led by Ibrahim Azizi, head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee for the Iranian parliament, and included the Iranian ambassador to Algeria, Mohammad Reza Babai.
Algeria’s relations with Iran are delicate due to lingering animosity over Iran’s role in the brutal Algerian Civil War of the 1990s, known to many Algerians as the “Black Decade.” The war began when the Algerian government canceled legislative elections, fearing Islamists would sweep to power.
The Islamists launched a terrorist war that spiraled into homicidal insanity, with both the insurgents and government forces killing countless civilians. The death toll ultimately topped 200,000, with thousands of the victims completely unaccounted for. Almost every family in Algeria was touched by the conflict.
Iran supported the insurgency, and to this day some resentful Algerians accuse Tehran of attempting to spread Shiite…
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