American Military Plane Did Not Fly Over Algerian Airspace, Elizabeth Stickney Says

The United States of America waited a long time to end a controversy that began in the media before it turned to social media, which involved an American military plane changing its course, giving the impression that it was prevented from passing over Algerian airspace, which turned out to be fake news.

The incident dates back to December,9,2023, when a news website affiliated with the American newspaper “Cleveland” published an indication that Algeria prevented an American military plane, which was heading towards the Zionist entity, from passing over its airspace. The website indicated that the plane was a Boeing C17-A Globenmaster. Long-range heavy military transport aircraft developed by McDonnell Douglas for the United States Air Force (USAF) is currently manufactured by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems due to the merger of the two companies.

The Cleveland American website added that The C-17 Globemaster 3 is used as a rapid strategic transport of troops and supplies for tactical transport missions, medical evacuation, airborne troop deployment and parachute drops and can continuously provide supplies to both operational bases as well. As potential fights.

Commenting on this information, Elizabeth Stickney, the Arabic Language Spokesperson for the U.S. State Department told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the “Recent reports about the American military plane’s route contained much inaccurate information.”

Soon, several foreign newspapers reported the news, which was not accurate, and published the route that the plane took to avoid flying over Algerian airspace. They also gave explanations linked to Algerian-American relations, as if they seemed tense because of some files.

However, the American official confirmed that “the American military plane departed from Spain on December 9, 2023, heading to Africa. However, due to an American administrative problem (the nature of which was not revealed), the American plane crew chose to redirect the plane to return to Spain.”

Elizabeth Stickney, the Arabic Language Spokesperson for the U.S. State Department explained that the “Reports contain a false image of the plane’s route have appeared on some websites which impersonate American news agencies and spread fake news,” noting that “the Algerian and American governments continue to coordinate in the areas of routine cooperation, and overflight permits continue as usual.”

The website that published the inaccurate news confirmed that the plane took off before it was prevented from flying over Algerian airspace from the American base in “Rota”, located in the province of Cádiz (southwestern Spain) where a population of about 8000 people including American civilian and military nationals are residing with their families.

This false news coincided with the visit of the US Deputy Assistant Secretary, Joshua Harris, to Algeria, where he was received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the National Community Abroad, Ahmed Attaf, and left without providing a statement about the plane’s story, while the US State Department published a brief statement in which it said that the discussions focused on the situation in the Middle East (the Palestinian issue), and the conflict in the Arab Maghreb between the Moroccan regime and the Polisario Front.

The US State Department anticipated Harris’ visit to Rabat about a week after he visited Algeria, by emphasizing, in an interview published on the website of the US Embassy in Algeria, that “the United States wants to see a political solution for Western Sahara that is lasting and dignified. We are serious about using our influence to enable a successful UN political process. A UN-facilitated resolution is long overdue. Previous UN envoys tried many different paths forward, but unfortunately, thus far those efforts have not been successful. The UN Security Council is clear the process should reflect a spirit of realism and compromise about the circumstances on the ground right now”.

“So, we are focused on doing all we can including with our Algerian friends and partners to allow the UN process to succeed. As you also saw, Ambassador Aubin recently joined a United Nations donor visit to Tindouf to focus on the international humanitarian response. The United States is proud to be the largest contributor to the humanitarian response in Tindouf. The only solution to that humanitarian emergency is political, and that is what we are trying to achieve”, he added.