Relations between Paris and Algiers remain "totally frozen," laments the head of French diplomacy.

Relations between France and Algeria remain "totally frozen" since the brutal expulsion of twelve French officials by Algiers in mid-April and a similar retaliatory measure by Paris , the head of French diplomacy lamented on Sunday during an interview with France Inter/France Télévisions/Le Monde.

Several French elected officials, including left-wing and centrist deputies and senators, traveled to Algeria this week to commemorate the massacres of May 8, 1945, amid heightened tensions between Algiers and Paris.

"These massacres in Sétif deserve to be commemorated. Moreover, the French embassy in Algiers laid a wreath on this occasion," emphasized Jean-Noël Barrot. "This is part of the process of remembering the truth that France has been committed to since 2017," he added.

"It is always positive that parliamentarians can travel on these occasions, but the relationship remains blocked and completely frozen," he stressed.

Recalled to France at the request of Emmanuel Macron, the French ambassador to Algiers, Stéphane Romatet, remains in Paris "for consultations," and no date for his return to Algeria has yet been announced. This situation is "the fault of the Algerian authorities, who abruptly decided to expel twelve of our agents," the head of diplomacy said.

"This is not just a brutal administrative decision; these are men and women who have had to suddenly leave their families, their children, their homes," he added.

Asked about potential sanctions against Algiers, Jean-Noël Barrot recalled that he had taken measures at the beginning of the year "to restrict access to the movement of dignitaries" in France, which had been "strongly resented by the people concerned."

"I'm not ruling myself out of taking them (new ones, editor's note). I won't necessarily say when I will take them, or when I won't. That's how diplomacy works," he concluded.