The head of Algeria's largest Islamist party on Thursday labeled Morocco's Prime Minister Saad Eddine El-Othmani a "traitor" over Rabat's recent decision to normalize ties with Israel, i24NEWS reports.
Abderrazak Makri, leader of the Algerian Movement for a Society of Peace (MSP), wrote in a post on Facebook, "The Head of the [Moroccan] government and General Secretary of Justice and Development party should be the most shameful among the deal signatories because of his betrayal to his principles and previous position towards normalization."
Makri accused El-Othmani's party of turning its back on the Palestinian people and slammed the faction as "Zionist."
"We believe that this party includes people who are credible in their support for the Palestinians' struggle against the Zionist occupier, but if the institutions of the party approved this betrayal, it means that it has officially become Zionist," he charged.
Morocco recently became the fourth Arab country to normalize ties with Israel in the past four months, thanks to a US-brokered agreement.
The agreement also included US recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara. Algeria, the key foreign backer of the Polisario Front which has campaigned for independence for Western Sahara since the 1970s, criticized the Morocco-Israel agreement.
Algeria, like many Muslim states, does not have relations with Israel. Two years ago, an Algerian court sentenced eight people to 10 years in prison over espionage for Israel.
That same year, Algeria claimed it uncovered an international spy network made up of 10 members that was operating for Israel and was based in southern Algeria.