Algeria takes aim at consular ties with Morocco, in new diversionary maneuver

Algeria has declared Morocco’s consul to Oran persona non grata without offering whatsoever explanation, in yet another diversionary tactic at a context Algiers is engulfed in diplomatic turmoil.

The decision came the same day Algeria handed a five-year jail sentence to a writer who recalled that France amputated lands and attached them to current Algeria.

The Moroccan deputy consul in Oran Mohamed El Soufiani was given 48 hours to leave the country, the Algerian foreign ministry said, citing “suspicious acts” without giving whatsoever explanation.

The hostile act shows that Algeria is running out of cards in its escalatory moves against Morocco, which has helped the military junta divert attention from the daily woes of the Algerian people.

Expelling the Moroccan diplomat is also meant to redirect spotlights away from the hefty sentence given to Boualem Sansal, a verdict that was reported in international news outlets portraying Algeria as a brutal state condemning people for free speech and for saying historical facts.

The Algerian regime, which braces for using Sansal as a bargain that may end with his release, hopes to make the Moroccan diplomat as a scapegoat in yet another impulsive move that shows that Algeria has hit the bottom of the absurd in its diplomatic ties.

The move came in a series of hostile acts. In 2021, Algeria unilaterally cut ties with Morocco without offering whatsoever evidence for the “hostile acts” it cited. Morocco said back then Algeria was unjustified in such a move, calling the accusations “absurd”.

Algeria doubled down instigating its Polisario proxies to violate the UN-brokered ceasefire, halting the flow of gas the same year, banning Moroccan flights from crossing Algerian airspace, ordering an academic boycott, banning trade with Moroccan ports and most recently re-imposing visa requirements on Moroccan nationals.

Morocco has not responded to any of the Algerian hostile acts.

As Algeria prepares to concede in its feud with France, the deadline set by the French government for Algeria to cooperate on repatriations of its nationals is approaching, throwing the Algerian nomenklatura into disarray. Hence the impulsive scapegoating acts that further show the Algerian regime as warmongering and inconsistent.