Algeria sends a minister to Morocco in a gesture of rapprochement after a year without relations

The Moroccan Foreign Minister, Naser Burita (right), receives the Algerian Minister of Justice, Abderrachid Tebbi, on Tuesday in Rabat.Moroccan Foreign Ministry (EFE)

Marked by a war six decades ago and by the closure of land borders three decades ago, diplomatic ties between Morocco and Algeria have not been fluid, reaching their lowest point in August last year with the breakdown of relations, poisoned by antagonism over Western Sahara.

However, the visit to Rabat of the Algerian Minister of Justice, Abderrachid Tebbi, on Tuesday sent a formal signal of rapprochement.

Tebbi extended a formal invitation to King Mohamed VI to attend the Arab League summit scheduled for November 1 and 2 in Algiers.

The brief official trip of the Algerian emissary to the Moroccan capital, barely an hour long, has not been officially evaluated in either of the two countries, although diplomatic sources in Rabat have limited themselves to considering it as protocol.

The atavistic secrecy of the Maghreb, however, has not prevented regional media from anticipating a possible presence of the Alaouite monarch at the pan-Arab conclave in Algiers.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Naser Burita, released his photo with the Algerian envoy to record the meeting, which had been officially announced three weeks ago, the first at a high level after the rupture of diplomatic relations and the subsequent closure of air borders and the cutting of the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline, which connects with Spain.

His department has declined to comment.

Mohamed VI has not traveled to Algiers since 2005, precisely to participate in an Arab League summit.

The pan-African magazine

published in Paris, insisted on its website on Wednesday that the monarch of the Alaouite dynasty will attend the appointment of Arab heads of state, "according to sources close to the (royal) palace", as he already advanced in its printed edition at the beginning of the month.

For now, there has been no official confirmation.

In previous statements, the head of Moroccan diplomacy had only specified that his country aspired to have "an active role" in the Algiers meeting.

The king, who has been in Paris almost permanently since June, according to the Moroccan press, can delegate his brother, Mulay Rachid;

in the head of the Government, Aziz Ajanuch, or in Minister Burita himself, the representation of his country in the conclave of the Arab League, the first face-to-face after the outbreak of the pandemic.

Last July, Mohamed VI extended his hand to Algeria in an official speech to the "brother people of Algeria" to put an end to the conflict between the two countries.

Algeria severed diplomatic ties more than a year ago after accusing Morocco of committing "hostile acts".

The dispute over Western Sahara is behind most of the disagreements between the two great neighbors of the Maghreb.

Rabat controls 80% of the territory and offers an autonomy plan under its sovereignty in what was a Spanish colony until 1975. Algiers supports the Polisario Front independence movement, whose leadership it welcomes in Tindouf (southwest) along with thousands of Saharawi refugees, and defends a process of decolonization through the will of self-determination expressed in a referendum.

The Algerian Government has reiterated this in recent sessions of the United Nations General Assembly.

Morocco has just replied with a call to Algeria to return to the path of dialogue on the Sahara in quadripartite "round tables" together with representatives of Mauritania and the Polisario, such as those developed in two rounds of negotiations starting in 2018. Rabat puts the focus “in the framework of the peaceful resolution of a regional dispute”, and not on “a question of decolonization”.

The UN envoy for Western Sahara, the veteran diplomat Staffan de Mistura, plans to present his report to the Security Council in October after the regional tour he made last summer.

After the turn given six months ago by the Spanish Government on the Sahara, by pronouncing in favor of the Moroccan proposal for autonomy as "the most serious, credible and realistic", President Pedro Sánchez avoided last week referring to the Rabat plan in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

The head of the Executive of the former metropolis has now declared himself in favor of "a mutually acceptable political solution" within the framework of the UN, with full support for De Mistura's "absolutely crucial" mediation work.

“Spain will continue to support the Saharawi population in the refugee camps (of Tindouf) as the main international donor”, ​​he emphasized.

Alleged change of course over the Sahara

The president of Algeria, Abdelmayid Tebún, referred last weekend to an alleged change of course on the Sahara in Sánchez's intervention.

"It seems that Spain has begun to return to the European decision on the Saharawi issue," said the president during a working meeting with provincial governors.

The Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Alabares, pointed out on Monday that the Prime Minister had not said anything in New York that he had not said before, and that the declaration signed with Morocco in March "is in force and is being fulfilled" .

In Morocco, the silence about Sánchez's words at the UN is absolute, including on the part of Minister Burita, who met a few days ago with his Spanish counterpart.

Although it is not on the agenda of the Euro-Mediterranean summit that on Friday will bring together the heads of state and government of nine EU countries in Spain, sources from the French presidency quoted by the Efe agency have taken it for granted that the issue of Sahara will be addressed in their sessions.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, telephoned the Moroccan prime minister on Tuesday to announce a "strengthening of the strategic association agreements."

Follow all the international information on

Subscribe to continue reading

read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber