Algeria’s Energy Minister said on Thursday that his ministry has rejected equipment made in Israel for the power plant in the city of Boutelis, agencies have reported. Mustapha Guitouni said that the equipment arrived in the country mistakenly, but his ministry took the issue “seriously” and “professionally”.

He accused a British company of deceiving the Algerian Sonelgaz Company by claiming that it was dealing with a French company. The minister noted that an internal investigation revealed the fact that the equipment was Israeli.

Guitouni also said that the Algerian power company had filed an official complaint against the French-American manufacturer Cegelec/General Electric, which was responsible for importing the equipment.

An MP from the Islamic Coalition Bloc in the Algerian Parliament, Lakhdar Bin Khallaf, was the first to raise the issue of the Israeli equipment, because Algerian law criminalises any normalisation and dealing with Israel or Israeli companies.