Sanchez Fails to Mobilize NATO Summit Against Algeria
The meeting of NATO, which was hosted by the Spanish capital Madrid, ended without reference to the proposals that the government of Pedro Sanchez tried to include in the agenda of this summit, on top of which comes the consideration of the employment of the gas card as a threat to the security of the member states of this body. In contrast, reference was made to illegal immigration but without practical measures.
On the first day of the NATO summit, the Spanish government reversed the flow of gas towards the Kingdom of Morocco, through the Maghreb-European gas pipeline, which had been suspended since the 1st of last November, after Algeria decided not to renew the contract to supply gas through it, to Spain via the Moroccan lands.
Algeria had warned the Spanish authorities, through more than one official, that the re-export of Algerian gas to Morocco may be considered a breach of the contracts concluded between Sonatrach and its Spanish partner, Naturgy, which may lead to the termination of the contracts concluded with Spain. Madrid responded that it would not export even a single part of Algerian gas towards the western neighbour, and confirmed the submission of the necessary documents in all transparency, but this did not dispel the doubts of the Algerian party.
During the NATO summit, no statement was issued by the Spanish Prime Minister, or in its final statement, indicating a condemnation of the use of gas as a political card in disputes between countries, and all that Sanchez said did not go beyond talking about the possibility of NATO intervention in Mali, as it is an area of instability in the Sahel region that helps to increase the phenomenon of illegal immigration, which is a real concern for the countries of southern Europe, especially Spain.
According to the Spanish newspaper, El Mundo, the leaders of NATO returned to their countries without practically responding to Pedro Sanchez’s demand. The newspaper added, “the military leaders regret that NATO has avoided deploying its forces in the Sahel region despite the chaos that is taking place there.”
El Mundo explained that, despite NATO’s commitment to addressing its southern border file, at the moment, it remains “just recommendations on paper and without precise details of the operational plan, in the strategic document that was approved at the summit.”
The file of illegal immigration would not have been raised at the NATO summit if there was no heinous crime committed by the Moroccan Makhzen security forces against hundreds of African immigrants on the walls of the occupied city of Melilla in front of their Spanish counterparts, last week, which raises more than one question about the reality of the spontaneity of events, as many observers and experts established the hypothesis that it was managed by the Madrid government and the Moroccan Makhzen regime to include it in the NATO summit discussions, and portray it as an imminent danger targeting the southern borders of the alliance, which starts from the borders of the occupied Melilla enclave, as concluded by the decisions of the recent Madrid summit.
The other thing that enhances the credibility of this hypothesis is that the Sanchez government reversed the flow of gas through the Maghreb-European gas pipeline towards the Kingdom of Morocco, on the first day of the Madrid Atlantic Summit. The goal of this decision is clear through its timing, which is to push Algeria towards making a decisive decision to cutting off gas flow to Spain, as it warned before, at the height of the NATO summit meeting, and this would make it easier for Sanchez to raise the issue of using the gas card for geopolitical considerations, in the hope of coming out with a condemnation of Algeria. Still, NATO let the storm pass to deal with Madrid in convenience.
The question that arises here, quite simply and objectively: Is the issue related to a beautiful coincidence? When a horrific massacre of thousands of African migrants occurs, just three days before the NATO Summit, and then on the first day of the summit itself, Madrid pumps gas towards the Kingdom of Makhzen after months of anticipation, two papers that the Sanchez government had tried to include in the meeting of the leaders of NATO, but he only succeeded in including one of them, which is the file of illegal immigration.
