Algeria summons its ambassador to Madrid after Spain's turn on Western Sahara

Algeria summoned its ambassador to Madrid on Saturday to show its discontent at the “sharp turn” taken by Spain in supporting Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara, a region where Algiers supports Saharawi independence.

Spain, the colonial expotence of that region, had always defended neutrality between Rabat and the Saharawi independentists of the Frente Polisario. But on Friday, he announced his change of position, taking the risk of discontent Algeria, on which its supply of natural gas depends heavily.

- Migration issue -

“The Algerian authorities, surprised by this abrupt change of position of the former Western Sahara administering Power, decided to call their ambassador in Madrid for consultations with immediate effect,” said a statement from the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, said on Friday in Barcelona that Spain “considers the autonomy initiative presented in 2007" by Morocco as “the most serious, realistic and credible basis for the resolution of this dispute” between Rabat and El Polisario.

The Moroccan authorities quickly expressed their satisfaction with Spain's “constructive commitments”, paving the way for the thaw of bilateral relations.

The diplomatic crisis between Morocco and Spain began in April 2021, when Madrid allowed the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, a sworn enemy of Rabat, to arrive on the peninsula to be hospitalized for covid-19.

The result was the massive arrival in May 2021 of migrants to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, in northern Morocco, after the Moroccan government relaxed border surveillance.

As part of the normalization of bilateral relations, Spain announced on Friday a visit to Morocco by the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, on an unspecified date. And Albares will travel to Rabat “before the end of the month”.

According to Bernabé López, professor of Arab and Islamic studies at the Autonomous University of Madrid, the Spanish government's change of position on the Sahara has the main objective of obtaining from Morocco a management of migration flows.

“It involves tightening the nuts a little so that there is a little more control and not that intentional lack of control that Morocco has,” he says.

Western Sahara is considered by the UN as a “Non-Self-Governing Territory”. It is in fact the only African territory whose post-colonial status remains suspended.

Morocco, which controls about 80% of this territory rich in mineral resources and with abundant fishing waters, proposes a plan of autonomy under its sovereignty.

The Frente Polisario calls for a self-determination referendum organized by the UN, scheduled for the 1991 ceasefire, which never took place.

- "Grave error" -

The Polisario Front received the news “very strangely”, according to a statement released on Saturday.

Saharawi independence officials consider that “the position expressed by the Spanish government totally contradicts international legitimacy” and urge Spanish political forces to “pressure the government to correct this grave error”.

“The UN, the African Union, the European Union, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and all regional organizations do not recognize any sovereignty of Morocco over Western Sahara,” the Polisario statement continues.

Algeria supplies more than 40% of the natural gas imported by Spain and most of it goes through the Medgaz submarine gas pipeline.

Another part arrived in Spain until last October thanks to another gas pipeline, the GME, which passes through Morocco.

But Algiers suspended the operation of the pipeline after breaking its diplomatic relations with Rabat at the end of August.

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