Algeria-Morocco: Decades of tensions

Algiers, Nov 3 (AFP/APP):As Algeria accused Morocco of killing three of its truck drivers on a desert highway, we look at the North African neighbours’ worsening relations.

The disputed Western Sahara, which Rabat considers part of its kingdom but where Algeria backs the pro-independence Polisario movement, has long inflamed their rivalry.
But tensions have escalated recently with diplomatic ties cut and airspace closed.

Algeria has also repeatedly accused Morocco of interfering in its internal affairs, particularly by allegedly backing opposition groups in the mainly Berber region of Kabylie.
Here is a timeline of tensions since the 1970s:
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 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.
Hassan makes his first visit to Algiers for 15 years.
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 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’s funeral in Rabat in July 1999, but that reconciliation ends the following month after a massacre leaves 29 dead in southwest Algeria.

Bouteflika accuses Morocco of harbouring armed Islamists.

– New thaw –

In 2005, meetings between Bouteflika and Morocco’s new King Mohammed VI mark a thaw in relations.
The king calls for a reopening of land borders and a normalisation of ties in 2011 and again in 2019.

– 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 the Western Sahara.

Algeria says the US decision has “no legal effect”.
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 restive Kabylie, a stronghold of the Amazigh (Berber) minority.

This is a red line for Algiers.
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 severs diplomatic relations with Morocco due to Rabat’s “hostile actions”.

Algeria in September shuts its airspace to Moroccan planes.
Last week, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune ordered gas exports using the pipeline through Morocco to Spain to be halted.

– Truckers killed –

Algeria says three of its truckers were killed on Monday when they were hit by a “sophisticated” Moroccan weapon on their way from Mauritania.
Reports say the men were killed at Bir Lahlou in the Western Sahara.