Spain Plays Appeasement Card With Algeria

Spain decided to play the truce card with Algeria after more than a month of interruption of diplomatic channels between the two countries, following the sudden reversal of the Spanish position on the Western Sahara issue, and the subsequent repercussions represented in Algeria which recalled its ambassador, Said Moussa, from Madrid for consultations.

On Monday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced his hope that the Algerian ambassador to Spain, Said Moussa, would return to his work in Madrid as soon as possible. “We hope that in the short term we will be able to solve this diplomatic problem,” Sanchez said in an interview on “Antena 3” channel.

And there has been no channel for diplomatic communication between Algeria and Madrid since the return of the Algerian ambassador in Madrid to his country, on March 18. However, the Spanish official confirmed that his country is cooperating with Algeria in areas other than energy, such as security or controlling irregular migration flows, and said: “In short, we have special coordination and cooperation with the government of Algeria”.

The statement of the Spanish Prime Minister is considered the first courtship towards Algeria by an official of his level, and previous statements by officials at lower levels were limited to describing Algeria as a “reliable partner” in the field of energy, and these statements have not resonated until today with officials in Algeria.

Sanchez tried to mitigate Algeria’s anger because of his last stance, hinting that his country did not forfeit the right of the Sahrawi people to self-determination despite his support for the Moroccan Makhzen system’s autonomy plan, and said: “There are two options to resolve this conflict in Western Sahara, and that one of them is a right to the self-determination that some actors like the Polisario advocate , but there is also a proposal launched by Morocco that goes through the autonomy of Western Sahara. These are the two proposals on the table that are recognized in the UN Security Council resolutions”.

The Spanish official aims behind changing his position on the Sahrawi issue, as he said, “to explore this second alternative (meaning the autonomy project) to avoid prolonging the conflict that erupted nearly 50 years ago,” which raises more than one question about the seriousness of the last Spanish position.

Pedro Sanchez’s statement came at a time when the political scene in Spain was in a state of sharp division due to the change in the position on Western Sahara, even within the government coalition, threatening the fall of the Sanchez government, which is subject to severe criticism because of its new position on the Saharan issue, which was described as the second betrayal. committed by Madrid against its former colony, Western Sahara.

On the other hand, the economic sanctions imposed by Algeria on Madrid increased the pressure placed on Sanchez by politicians, and it is threatening to reach the popular level, with the rise in gas prices that Algeria decided to review in the contracts concluded between the two parties, in the midst of the aggravating diplomatic crisis against the background of the much controversial reversal of the Spanish position on the Western Sahara issue.

Algeria has also banned the import of beef from Spain, in addition to other agricultural products, while the list of prohibitions is expanding from day to day, and it is expected that the role of the Spanish ceramics industry, which is one of the products strongly needed in the construction sector in Algeria, will come any time soon.