The new dynamic of diplomatic relations between Rabat and Riyadh might lead to unexpected results. And despite Algeria’s growing hostility to Morocco, Algiers would unexpectedly show a willingness to re-establish relations with Morocco for the first time. Saudi mediation can lead to a surprise.
Is the diplomatic crisis between Rabat and Algiers triggered by the latter living its last days or weeks? In any case, according to the Maghreb Intelligence site, the Algerian government announced to the Saudi mediators that it would set the conditions for a possible reconciliation with Morocco.
Among other things, Algiers demands that Morocco end security cooperation with Israel before reestablishing relations with Rabat can be considered. Better, the source specifies that Algiers declares never that Morocco works with Israel on military projects.
Algerian leaders believe that by cooperating with Morocco, the Israelis pose a greater threat to the territorial integrity of their country, fuel regional tensions and even invade the country.
Algiers’ package of demands means negotiations over a likely return to normal relations between Algiers and Rabat will be complex.
Pending a response from Rabat, the Saudis are continuing their mediation and have scheduled several meetings in Algiers, Riyadh and Tunis in the coming weeks, report Saudi emissaries and Algerian representatives.
In a statement following the Algerian decision, Saudi Arabia, one of the first countries to react to the severance of relations, issued a statement underlining its hope that ties between the two countries will be restored as soon as possible. . In this note, Riyadh called on “the brothers of the two countries to promote dialogue and diplomacy to reach solutions that might contribute to the opening of a new page in the relations between the two brotherly countries”. “Relations must return to bring benefits to the peoples of both countries, achieve security and stability across the region, and enhance Arab cooperation,” he added.
As a reminder, Morocco and Israel decided in December 2020 to normalize their relations, but Algiers has always talked regarding reconciliation. According to President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Morocco is behind an “Israeli attack on Algerian national unity” and accuses Israel of funding “Moroccan propaganda” once morest Algeria.
In November last year, Tebboune expressed his disapproval of Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s visit to Morocco. He called the former Israeli army chief of staff’s visit “shameful, betrayal, infamous and dishonorable”.
Gantz was in Rabat to sign an arms deal. This was the first official visit by an Israeli Minister of Defense to Morocco.
