Algeria’s Influence Chasing The Nefarious Spanish Maneuvers In Mali
The features of the policy of the axes began to appear in the race of positions and interests between Algeria and its regional opponents, led by Spain, in the region extending from the western Mediterranean basin to the Sahel region, driven by the new orientation of Algerian diplomacy based on facing the challenge with another challenge greater than it.
During the recent NATO summit hosted by the Spanish capital Madrid, the government of this country, headed by Pedro Sanchez, and his foreign minister, Jose Manuel Alvares, put pressure on their “Atlantic” counterparts to agree to a military role for NATO in Mali, under the pretext of trapping the phenomenon of illegal immigration in its infancy.
Regardless of whether the Spanish party aims behind this demand, to fight the phenomenon of illegal immigration at its sources, in return it offended the sovereignty of a sovereign state represented in Mali, and also disturbed Algeria by calling for the inclusion of Western military forces in a country bordering its southern borders, in which the lack of stability has always been a source of concern for all neighboring countries.
The “Spanish aggression” against Mali did not pass without leaving repercussions on the relationship between Bamako and Madrid.
The Spanish ambassador was summoned by the Malian Foreign Ministry, against the background of statements to “Alvares” in which he said that the military intervention of NATO in Mali “is not possible.”
“We summoned the ambassador of Spain to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to inform him of our strong protest against these statements,” Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said in an interview exclusively with state television against a sovereign and independent country.
The words of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mali were very authentic and credible, and he was responding to Spanish officials and, behind them, the leaders of NATO, who played on the “bogeyman” of terrorism to justify military intervention in the Sahel region, when he said: “The minister (meaning Alvares) should remember that the current insecurity and the expansion of terrorism in the Sahel region are linked, in particular, to the NATO intervention in Libya, whose repercussions we are still paying for”, as he put it.
The target party, although not mentioned in the Spanish government’s “maneuvering”, is Algeria for several considerations, since this call completely contradicts Algeria’s declared and not hidden positions regarding the crisis in Mali. Returning to the statements of Algerian officials, we find that they all call for peaceful solutions, and for that a mission was accomplished under the auspices of the United Nations, through which it was able to gather the parties in Mali at one table and persuade them to sign what has become known as the “Algiers Agreement” in 2015, which France tried to destroy through its military intervention in this country in 2013.
From this point of view, it is likely that Spain carried out this maneuver at the behest of France, which was forced to withdraw its soldiers from Mali, under pressure from the Bamako authorities, which stood on dangerous practices by supporting and training terrorist organizations in northern Mali, attributed to the French army, as stated by the Prime Minister. The transitional government in Mali, led by Chogei Maiga, spoke in October 2021 about his government’s availability of irrefutable evidence condemning Paris, which is trying to return its military forces through the Atlantic gate, after it was removed from the window of its failed operations, “Serval” and “Barkhane”, according to French politicians and media professionals.
It is clear from this controversy that Algeria and Mali aligned themselves against Paris and Madrid. These two axes can be seen through the rapprochement that took place in the positions of the two African capitals, from the two European countries, as Bamako appears to be following Algeria’s footsteps in dealing with provocations from the north.
Algeria took the initiative to recall its ambassador in Paris against the background of offensive statements (related to memory) by French President Emmanuel Macron, and that was in October 2021, the same month of the same year that Mali summoned the French ambassador in Bamako to protest against Macron’s statements in which he called for the “return of the state” in Mali.
The strange thing is that what Algeria and Mali did with France was repeated with Spain. The Algerian ambassador was summoned from Madrid in March 2022, in protest of the latter’s sudden reversal of the Western Sahara issue in favor of the Moroccan Makhzen regime, before the turn came to Mali. Last Friday, the Spanish ambassador in Bamako, after the Spanish Foreign Minister demanded that NATO intervene militarily in this African country.
Observers talk about the beginning of the crystallization of the Algerian role in revolt against the attempts of European guardianship over the countries of the brown continent. This approach is evident from the state of “rebellion” that characterizes the positions of many African countries against the French presence, which began in the Central African Republic, before extending to Mali and then Chad. and Burkina Faso, echoing the statement made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad, Ramtane Lamamra about Mali, when he said he wanted to “remind those who want to hear us that Africa is a cradle of humanity and a grave of occupation”.
