Algeria-Morocco: Decades Of Tensions

Algiers, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Aug, 2021 ) :Algeria on Tuesday severed diplomatic relations with neighbouring Morocco, after weeks of resurgent tensions between the two Maghreb heavyweights.

The issue of the Western Sahara, which Rabat considers an integral part of its kingdom, but where Algeria backs the pro-independence Polisario movement, has long been a key sticking point.

Algeria meanwhile has repeatedly accused Morocco of interference in its own internal affairs, latterly by backing opposition groups in the mainly Berber region of Kabylie.

Here is a timeline of the fraught relations since the 1970s: - Relations severed - Rabat severs diplomatic relations with Algeria in 1976 after Algiers recognises the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), proclaimed by the Polisario Front.

The two countries had waged a "Sand War" since 1963 after several border clashes, and their relations deteriorated after the "Green March" by 350,000 Moroccans to the border in 1975.

- Rapprochement - Moroccan King Hassan II and the Algerian President Chadli Bendjedid meet in 1983 at the border.

Free movement between the two countries is re-established and air and rail links resume.

In 1988 Algeria and Morocco announce they are resuming diplomatic relations and their respective borders are officially opened.

Hassan II makes his first visit to Algiers for 15 years, for an Arab summit.

Reconciliation is sealed in 1989 when Bendjedid visits Ifrane in Morocco, the first trip by an Algerian head of state since 1972.

An accord is struck on a pipeline project to connect Algeria with Europe via Morocco.

In 1992 Rabat enacts a 20-year-old convention that ends the border problems at the root of the "Sand War".

- Borders closed - The Western Sahara dispute sparks fresh tensions in 1994, after Algerian President Liamine Zeroual says the territory remains an "illegally occupied country" in Africa.

Morocco establishes entry visas for Algerians after Islamists attack a Marrakesh hotel and kill two tourists. Rabat accuses the Algerian security services of being behind it.

Algeria closes its 1,600-kilometre (1,000-mile) border with Morocco.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika attends Hassan II's funeral in Rabat in July 1999, but that reconciliation move ends the following month after a massacre leaves 29 dead in the Algerian southwest.

Bouteflika accuses Morocco of helping armed Islamists to infiltrate.

- New thaw - In 2005 meetings between Bouteflika and Morocco's new King Mohammed VI on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Algiers mark a new thaw in relations.

The king in 2011 calls for a reopening of land borders and a normalisation of ties, and several months later Bouteflika says he is willing to work towards firming up relations.

In 2019 Mohammed VI calls for the opening of a "new page" in relations in a message of congratulations to new Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

- Israel-Morocco normalisation - The normalisation deal between Morocco and Israel in December 2020 triggers fresh tensions.

As part of the deal, the United States recognises Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.

Algeria says the US decision "had no legal effect".

"The Western Sahara conflict is a decolonisation issue that can only be resolved through the application of international law," it says.

- Heightened tensions - A new diplomatic spat erupts on July 18 when Algeria recalls its ambassador in Morocco for consultations.

This comes after Morocco's envoy to the UN expresses support for self-determination for Algeria's traditionally restive Kabylie region, a stronghold of the Amazigh (Berber) minority.

This is a red line for Algiers, which opposes any independence aspirations in the region.

On July 31 the Moroccan king deplores "tensions" with Algeria, and reiterates his call to reopen borders.

- Ties severed again - On August 18 Algiers announces a review of relations and border security controls, after accusing Rabat of complicity in deadly forest fires.

Six days later, Algeria's Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra announces that his country is severing bilateral relations due to Rabat's "hostile actions".

He also accuses Morocco's leaders of "responsibility for repeated crises" and behaviour that has "led to conflict instead of integration" in North Africa.