Algeria recalled, Saturday, March 19, its ambassador to Madrid to protest against a “sudden reversal” of Spain which said it was in favor of an autonomy plan proposed by Morocco for Western Sahara, a file in which Algiers supports the separatists of the Polisario. Spain, however very dependent on Algeria for its gas supplies, the prices of which soared after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has made a radical change of position on this sensitive issue. The Spanish government publicly supported the Moroccan autonomy project for Western Sahara for the first time, while Madrid had always adopted a neutral position between Rabat and the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front.
The Spanish government claims to have warned Algeria of its support for the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco for Western Sahara. “The Spanish government informed the Algerian government in advance of Spain’s position regarding the Sahara”, former Spanish colony, government sources said on March 19. “For Spain, Algeria is a strategic, priority and reliable partner with whom we wish to maintain a privileged relationship”, she assured. Algeria supplied more than 40% of the natural gas imported by Spain in 2021, most of which reaches it through the Medgaz submarine gas pipeline, with a capacity of 10 billion cubic meters per year. Another part of the Algerian gas arrived until last October in Spain through another gas pipeline, the GME, passing through Morocco. Since the fall, Algiers has suspended its operation after the end of August of its diplomatic relations with Rabat.
This 180 degree turn will allow a normalization of relations between Spain and Morocco. This new Spanish position was hailed by the Moroccan authorities as “constructive commitments”, paving the way for a thaw in bilateral relations. A major diplomatic quarrel opposed Rabat and Madrid since April 2021 after the reception in Spain for treatment of Covid-19, of the leader of the Polisario Brahim Ghali. It resulted in the massive arrival in May 2021 of migrants of Moroccan origin in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta (northern Morocco), taking advantage of a relaxation of border surveillance on the Moroccan side. According to Bernabé López, professor of Arab and Islamic studies at the Autonomous University of Madrid, this Spanish gesture on the Sahara is intended in particular to obtain from Rabat a management of migratory flows. In order to “that there is more control and not this intentional absence of control on the part of Morocco”, he judges.
The conflict in Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony considered a “non-autonomous territory” by the UN, has for decades opposed Morocco to the separatists of the Polisario, supported by Algiers. Rabat, which controls nearly 80% of this desert territory with its rich subsoil and waters full of fish, proposes an autonomy plan under its sovereignty while the Polisario calls for a self-determination referendum, planned when it was signed in 1991 of a ceasefire but never materialized. The Polisario denounces Madrid’s change of position. “Spain, in addition to its violation of international law, is no longer able to play a credible role in the process of political settlement of the conflict because of its alignment with the position of one of the parties to the conflict” , affirms Oubi Bouchraya Bachir, representative of the Polisario Front in Europe and to the European Union (EU).