Algeria-Morocco: Decades Of Tensions

Algiers, Sept 29 (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Sep, 2021 ) :Tensions have been escalating between North African heavyweights Algeria and Morocco, with the former closing its airspace to Moroccan planes this month after breaking off diplomatic relations with its neighbour.

The issue of the Western Sahara, which Rabat considers part of its kingdom but where Algeria backs the pro-independence Polisario movement, has long enflamed their rivalry.

The European Union's top court on Wednesday cancelled two trade deals that had allowed Morocco to export farm products and fish to the bloc from the disputed territory.

Algeria has also repeatedly accused Morocco of interfering in its internal affairs -- particularly by backing opposition groups in the mainly Berber Kabylie region, without providing evidence so far.

Here is a timeline of their 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 following several border clashes.

Relations had deteriorated in 1975, after 350,000 Moroccans undertook a "Green March" to the border with the then Spanish Sahara to force Madrid to hand over the territory.

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

Free movement between the two countries is re-established.

In 1988, Algeria and Morocco resume diplomatic relations and borders are officially opened.

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

An accord is later 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".

Morocco accuses the Algerian security services of being behind an Islamist attack on a Marrakesh hotel that kills two tourists.

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 mark a thaw in relations.

The king in 2011 calls for a reopening of land borders and a normalisation of ties.

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

- Israel-Morocco deal - A 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 has "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 diplomatic spat erupts on July 18, 2021 when Algeria recalls its ambassador to Morocco.

The move comes after Morocco's envoy to the United Nations 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 accuses Rabat of complicity in deadly forest fires.

Six days later, Algeria's Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra says the country is severing diplomatic relations with Morocco, due to Rabat's "hostile actions".

He accuses Morocco's leaders of causing "repeated crises", being behind deadly August fires, backing separatists and using Israeli spyware against Algerian officials.

Morocco, which rejects the allegations, says the decision is "completely unjustified", and based on "false, even absurd pretexts".

- 'Provocations' - On August 26, Algeria says it is ready to divert all its Spain-bound natural gas exports via Medgaz, an undersea pipeline that bypasses Morocco.

On September 22, Algiers closes its airspace to Moroccan planes due to its "provocations and hostile practices".

On Wednesday, the EU's top court cancels two trade deals that had allowed Morocco to export farm products and fish to the bloc from Western Sahara, a ruling hailed by the Polisario independence movement.