Algeria’s ambassador returns to Madrid empty-handed

In a recent manifestation of erratic diplomacy, Algeria returned its ambassador to Madrid after a recall that lasted 18 months in protest against Spain’s sovereign decision to back Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara and its autonomy plan.

Algeria has shown its real face as the genuine party to the Sahara conflict by protesting against the Spanish support for Morocco’s autonomy plan in 2022.

It started by recalling its ambassador to Madrid in March 2022, scrapped a neighborliness treaty and took trade retaliation measures going as far as threatening to cut gas deliveries to Spain.

It also weaponized migration, letting boats loaded with Algerian youth take the risky crossing from Algeria’s coasts to Spain.

The return of Algeria’s ambassador without achieving the goal of reversing Madrid’s support for Morocco is another fiasco of an Algerian improvised foreign policy geared towards defending the separatist thesis at all costs.

Algeria has taken a bet on the defeat of Sanchez’s PSOE coalition that they believe would lead to abandoning the pro-Morocco stance. But Sanchez is poised to form a new government again following a landmark coalition deal with the far-left Sumar coalition to end the political limbo in the country in a breakthrough agreement that includes abandoning support for the Polisario separatists.

The Algerian regime is also returning its ambassador to Spain in an acknowledgement of diplomatic defeat amid a trend in the international community to back Morocco’s autonomy plan.

The most recent UN Security Council resolution acknowledged the pre-eminence of the plan as serious and credible and buried the referendum obsolete option, asking instead the UN peacekeeping mission to adapt its strategic focus to helping the parties-including Algeria- achieve a mutually acceptable solution based on compromise.