President Tebboune shows inconsistency of Algeria’s foreign policy

The Algerian president has been uttering contradictory comments since he took office showing the inconsistency of his country’s military regime as far as foreign policy is concerned. He rejects mediation in a conflict his country has created with Morocco, while seeking a role in resolving issues as far as the black sea or the Sahel!

In an interview with Al Jazeera, President Tebboune reiterated the hostile position of his military mentors saying relations with Rabat “reached a point of no return.”

Meanwhile, Tebboune said his country was ready to mediate in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine or in the Sahel, a statement that was met with astonishment by international observers.

Tebboune adopted a victimization stance saying his country was only “reacting” to Morocco, yet without mentioning what actions was Algeria reacting to when it cut ties, banned Moroccan aircrafts from its airspace, shut a gas pipeline, and incited a separatist group to withdrew from an UN-brokered ceasefire.

He mentioned that borders have been kept closed for four decades since Algeria’s independence without again specifying who keeps them shut despite repeated calls from the Moroccan sovereign for open borders and integration between the two countries.

Tebboune has come to represent the civilian façade of a brutal military regime that holds a whole country hostage while stoking hostility against Morocco which the Algerian official rhetoric blames for all the woes in the country.

Faithful to conspiracy theories that puts the blame on Morocco on all that goes wrong in Algeria, Tebboune used the same approach to explain why Tunisia was mired in self-inflicted economic and social troubles. He said that was because Tunisia’s authoritarian president Kais Saied has received the chief of the Polisario separatist militias, which Tebboune calls president of the self-proclaimed and Algeria-based Sahrawi republic.

Algeria, which often claims it was not a party to the Sahara conflict, is the same country that urges Spain to change its pro-Morocco position regarding the conflict. It is also the country that has pre-judged the outcome of self-determination by creating and backing militarily and diplomatically a separatist entity and lobbying for its recognition by the African Union.

But as it sensed the days of the Polisario membership in the African Union are numbered, the military regime pulls the strings of the civilian façade, Tebboune, to make statements to international and co-opted national media. But they are not convincing anyone!

Nearly two years after they cut ties, Algeria failed to present any evidence against Morocco. Many observers view Algeria’s warmongering and hostility towards Morocco as a tactic to galvanize a fractured domestic front against an imaginary enemy at the gates.