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Join on Telegram Rabat – The last-minute postponement of the Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister’s anticipated visit to Algeria has sparked questions, highlighting the tensions and unresolved divergences between Algeria and Spain – particularly on the Western Sahara dispute.
While some news outlets suggested that FM Jose Manuel Albares canceled the visit for calendar reasons, others claimed that it was Algiers that postponed the visit due to the unresolved crisis between the two countries.
On Sunday, Spanish media said that Albares canceled the visit at the last minute.
Albares’ official visit to Algiers is postponed due to Algerian scheduling reasons,” El Pais quoted the Spanish FM’s office as saying.
However, besides the logistical explanation, the minister’s administration has not given any specific further reason for the postponement.
The two countries originally scheduled Albares’ visit, with the aim of reconciliation following a few years of political crisis and tensions due to Spain’s decision to endorse Morocco’s Autonomy Plan as “the most serious and credible political basis” to end the dispute over Western Sahara.
In response to Spain’s position, Algeria recalled its ambassador and also suspended a 20-year-old friendship treaty with Madrid– affecting trade cooperation between the two countries.
Following the lingering crisis, several reports suggested that Algiers and Spain decided to mend their relations – especially after Algeria decided to send a new ambassador to Spain.
In November last year, Algeria appointed Abdelhafid Deghmoune as its new envoy to Madrid.
Alleged scheduling mishap
For his part, El Mundo said that Algeria postponed Albares’ visit due to “Scheduling issues,” describing the news as “undoubtedly a setback for Spanish diplomacy.”
The news outlet, however, acknowledged an improvement in bilateral ties between Madrid and Algiers in the past few months.
“There was discreet work in Algeria, which achieved a first step towards normalizing relations late last year when Algeirs sent Abdelhafid Daghmoune as a new ambassador after 19 months without representation,” Spanish outlet El Mundo wrote.
El Confidential also reported on the postponement of the visit, saying that this trip aimed to “finalize the reconciliation” between the two countries.
The Spanish outlet attributed the situation to the Algeria president’s agenda, which did not allow him to personally receive Albares during the postponed meeting.
“Albares, feeling snubbed, decided not to travel to Algiers,” the news outlet quotes a diplomatic source as saying.
In this sense, El Confidential suggested in their report that Albares canceled the meeting out of principle, due to Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s last-minute decision not to meet him in person.
“He [the Spanish FM] had been preparing for the meeting for weeks and had invited several journalists to accompany him,” El Confidential added.
Political divergences
However, as for Algerian media, TSA quoted its sources saying that the visit was postponed due to differences between the two countries.
“Since the crisis of March 2022, Algeria and Spain have disagreed on the Western Sahara conflict,” the news outlet added.
Since 2022, Algeria has been lobbying against Spain’s new Sahara position, urging Madrid to reverse its support for the Autonomy initiative.
In December last year, Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf renewed claims repeatedly debunked by Spain’s government regarding Madrid’s position on the dispute.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Attaf claimed that Madrid changed its position in the dispute, suggesting that the Spanish government has reversed its stance in order to mend ties with Algiers.
“What gave the green light to the reassessment of our relations with Spain is the speech delivered by Pedro Sanchez at the United Nations General Assembly…[where] he changed his position,” Attaf claimed.
A few days following the claims, Albares debunked the news during a visit to Morocco, where he reiterated his country’s position that Morocco’s Autonomy Plan is the “most serious, realistic, and credible” basis to end the dispute.
“The position of Spain regarding the issue of the Sahara has not changed. It is the same as already expressed in the Joint Declaration adopted on April 7, 2022, and the Declaration concluding the 12th session of the High-Level meeting Morocco-Spain in February 20233,” Albares said.
