At the end of January 1997, the executive branch of the FIS in exile, condemned the wave of violent attacks and called for the formation of a national government. In the middle of March 1997, the FIS excluded from membership some forty of its leaders, who had refused "to make peace at any price". Its spokesman abroad, Abdelkrim Ould Adda, declared that the FIS did not want a religious state or a Theocracy in Algeria. However, in a statement at the beginning of April 1997 by the same spokesman, the FIS would boycott the parliamentary elections.
The Islamic Liberation Army (AIS) is the armed wing of the FIS, and is thought to have 4,000 men infiltrated in the east and west of Algeria. The FIS depends on the AIS to impose its will on political negotiations, and consequently the AIS prefers the preservation and organisation of its forces to large-scale military operations.