Algeria is preparing to break its diplomatic relations with Spain

USPA NEWS - Algeria is preparing to break its diplomatic relations with Spain, after the Government of Madrid announced its intention to recognize the autonomy of Western Sahara as a province of Morocco. Algeria, the main supporter of the Polisario Front, which is pursuing the independence of the former Spanish colony, considers Spain's announcement to be a betrayal, breaking forty years of Spanish policy on Western Sahara and even opposing the UN, which defends a self-determination referendum in the former Spanish colony.

Algeria called its ambassador in Madrid for consultations, a step prior to breaking off diplomatic relations. The North African country is the main supplier of gas to Spain, which was in favor of increasing imports of Algerian gas. But Algeria is also the traditional enemy of Morocco, with whom it suspended diplomatic relations a year ago. Morocco also withdrew its ambassador from Madrid eleven months ago, when an avalanche of illegals tried to enter Spain. The ambassador returned to Madrid in recent days.

Spain announced that it will recognize Western Sahara as belonging to Morocco, albeit as an autonomous region. The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, will appear in Parliament this Tuesday to explain the reasons of the Spanish Government in recognizing Western Sahara as part of Morocco. The opposition has criticized the decision of the Spanish Government, which breaks forty years of Spanish foreign policy in the Maghreb.

The UN also rejected the decision of the Spanish Government. The UN defends the holding of a self-determination referendum in Western Sahara and pointed out that the Sahara conflict can only be resolved with a "full commitment of the parties to the political process facilitated by the UN." Last October, the UN Security Council approved a resolution in which it supported "a realistic, viable, lasting solution, acceptable to the parties and based on compromise" and that "provides for the self-determination of the people of the Western Sahara within the framework of the provisions in accordance with the principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter." Along these same lines, the Algerian Senate criticized the decision of the Spanish Government and urged it to rectify it. But Madrid has the support of the European Commission, which considers the rapprochement between Spain and Morocco to be “positive.”

The conflict with Algeria comes after learning that a Spanish judge accuses the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, of having organized the entry into Spain of the Secretary General of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, and his stay in a Spanish hospital to be treated for Covid -19. That decision caused discomfort in Morocco, which now seems to have been compensated by the letter that the President of the Spanish Government sent to the Government of Morocco announcing the change in Spain's position in relation to the Spanish Sahara.