HIBAPRESS
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune avoided receiving his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian, whose plane landed on Tuesday at Algiers International Airport "Houari Boumediene," and instead contented himself with sending the Minister of Interior, Local Collectivities, and Transport, Saïd Sayoud, to receive him.
Tebboune's absence from receiving the Iranian President came at a time when Algeria insists on presenting the Iranian plane's stop as a "technical stop," a justification adopted by local media in their coverage of the event.
Pezeshkian was received at the airport's VIP lounge, alongside Sayoud, by the Secretary of State to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, in charge of the National Community Abroad, Soufiane Châaïb.
This move comes in the context of escalating US pressure on Iran, led by President Donald Trump, who seeks to tighten international isolation on Tehran and push various countries to curtail their relations with it.
By avoiding Tebboune's presence, Algeria sidestepped granting the Iranian President's stop a presidential reception, a level of representation that would have carried a clear political significance amidst the escalating US campaign against Iran.
This Algerian reserve is more pronounced given the nature of relations between Algeria and Tehran, and the fact that Pezeshkian was on his way to New York to participate in the UN General Assembly.
While Algeria chose to describe the stop as "technical" and settled for government representation in receiving the Iranian President, Tebboune remained distant from the scene, a move that comes at a time of increasing US pressure on countries linked to Iran.
The handling of Pezeshkian's stop reflects Algeria's keenness to keep the reception at a limited official level, to avoid turning the Iranian plane's stop into an occasion for a presidential reception that could put Algeria in direct confrontation with the United States of America.
