Spain says it “regrets” Algiers’ decision.
Nothing is going well between Algiers and Madrid. Algeria on Wednesday (June 8 ) suspended a “treaty of friendship, good neighborliness and cooperation” concluded in 2002 with Spain, after Madrid’s reversal on the Western Sahara file to align itself with Morocco’s position. Spain says it “regrets” Algiers’ decision.
“The Spanish authorities have engaged in a campaign to justify the position they have adopted on Western Sahara in violation of their legal, moral, and political obligations as the administering power of the territory which weighs on the Kingdom of Spain until the decolonization of Western Sahara is declared accomplished by the United Nations.” The Algerian presidency at APS
The treaty provided for the strengthening of political dialogue between the two countries and the development of cooperation in the economic, financial, educational, and defense fields.
Trade restrictions
A key banking body in Algeria has already announced restrictions on business transactions with Spain after the suspension of this treaty, according to a document published by local media shortly after the announcement of the suspension of the treaty. Spanish-Algerian. No official announcement has yet been made concerning this decision providing for the freezing of foreign trade bank direct debits from and to Spain. Following the “suspension of the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation with the Kingdom of Spain, you are asked to freeze the bank domiciliations of foreign trade operations of products and services, from and to Spain from Thursday, June 9”, writes the Association of Banks and Financial Institutions (ABEF) in a note addressed to the directors of banks and financial institutions.
A historic turnaround
Madrid made a radical change of position on March 18 on the sensitive issue of Western Sahara by supporting the Moroccan autonomy project, arousing the anger of Algiers, the main support of the Sahrawi independence movement of the Polisario Front. “These same (Spanish) authorities who bear responsibility for an unjustifiable reversal of their position since the announcements of March 18, 2022, by which the current Spanish government gave its full support to the illegal and illegitimate formula of internal autonomy advocated by the occupying power, are working to promote a colonial fait accompli by using fallacious arguments”, added the Algerian presidency. “The Spanish government regrets the announcement of the Algerian presidency,” Spanish diplomatic sources said, adding that Spain “considers Algeria a neighboring and friendly country and reiterates its full availability to continue to maintain and develop the special relations of cooperation between the two countries”.
The question of Western Sahara
The question of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony considered a “non-autonomous territory” by the UN, has for decades pitted Morocco, which controls 80% of it, against the separatists of the Polisario Front. In the aftermath of the Spanish reversal, Algiers recalled its ambassador to Spain, and the national hydrocarbon company Sonatrach mentioned a rise in the price of Algerian gas delivered to Spain. The Spanish about-face put an end to a serious diplomatic crisis that had opposed Madrid and Rabat for almost a year, marked by the arrival in mid-May 2021 of more than 10,000 migrants in 48 hours in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, thanks to a relaxation of controls and by the Moroccan authorities.
A pressure weapon
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Wednesday, June 8, that his country “will not tolerate” the use of ” illegal immigration as a weapon of pressure”, in an indirect warning to Rabat. The crisis between the two countries was caused by the reception in Spain in April 2021 of the leader of the Polisario Brahim Ghali, to be treated there for Covid-19. In a confidential report revealed by El Pais, Spanish intelligence services claimed that hosting Brahim Ghali was used by Rabat “as a magnificent opportunity to obtain greater concessions” from Spain.
A “dirty war”
In an interview with the daily El Periodico de Espana, former Spanish foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya accused Morocco of having “eavesdropped” on Spanish officials during the diplomatic quarrel with Madrid. The Spanish left-wing government had assured by revealing these hacks in early May that they had been carried out using the Israeli software Pegasus, describing them as an “external attack” while saying they did not know their origin. Many Spanish media have mentioned Rabat’s involvement. Commenting on these revelations and the declarations of the former Spanish minister, the Algerian diplomat Amar Belani, a special envoy in charge of the question of Western Sahara, Morocco to wage a “dirty war” on neighboring countries.
