Algeria and 13 other African countries agreed to expel Israel from the African Union after the body’s decision last week to grant observer status to the Tel Aviv regime.

Algeria has officially begun the process of forming a group of African countries to oppose Tel Aviv's membership in the African Union in order to preserve the principles of the union and to support Palestine, according to Algerian channel.

According to the report, South Africa, Tunisia, Eritrea, Senegal, Tanzania, Niger, Comoros, Gabon, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Mali and Seychelles are the countries that have agreed to expel Israel from the 55-member African Union.

Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra has stressed that his country would not stand idly by the African Union’s move which was taken without any consultation with its member states.

He added that the AU's move to accept Israel as an observer member aims to undermine stability of Algeria, which supports Palestine and its just cause.

The foreign minister added that his country’s diplomatic moves are in fact a reaction to Israel's obtaining an observer status in the African Union following years of efforts by the regime’s officials.

Lamamra noted that Israel had previously gained membership as an observer in the Organization of African Unity, but in 2002, the title was taken back from the regime as the African Union replaced the organization.

The Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the decision to grant the Israeli entity membership as an observer in the African Union.

The ministry said in a statement that the recent decision of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission to accept a new observer, which falls within his administrative powers, would not affect the firm and effective support of the continental organization towards the just Palestinian cause, and its commitment to embodying the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people, including its right to establish an independent state, with Jerusalem as its capital.

This decision, which was taken without prior extensive consultations with all member states, does not have any capacity or ability to legitimize the practices and behaviors of the new observer, which are completely contrary to the values, principles and objectives stipulated in the Constitutive Act of the African Union.