ALGIERS: Algeria has recalled its ambassador from Madrid in protest at Spain’s decision to back a Moroccan autonomy plan for the disputed former Spanish colony of Western Sahara.
A Foreign Ministry statement condemned the “abrupt about-turn” by Madrid, which had previously maintained neutrality in the decades-old conflict for the territory between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front independence movement.
Speaking on Friday, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares backed a 2007 proposal by Morocco to offer Western Sahara autonomy under its sovereignty, describing it as the “most serious, realistic and credible basis” to end the long-running conflict.
“Completely stunned by the statements on the West Sahara issue from the highest levels of the Spanish government, and surprised by this abrupt about-turn from Western Sahara’s former rulers, the Algerian authorities have decided to recall the ambassador to Madrid for consultations with immediate effect,” the statement said.
The Polisario had already responded angrily to the statement from Albares, calling for political pressure to be put on Madrid for a change of heart.
“The United Nations, the African Union, the European Union, the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Justice and all regional organizations do not recognize Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara,” the movement said.
Spain has maintained generally good relations with Algeria and imports more than 40 percent of its gas needs from the North African country though a pipeline under the Mediterranean.
Its relations with Morocco have been more problematic.
Its April 2021 decision to allow Polisario leader Brahim Ghali to receive medical treatment at a Spanish hospital drew a furious response from Rabat.
The following month, hundreds of would-be Moroccan migrants stormed the border around the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta, taking advantage of the withdrawal of Moroccan border guards to penetrate the remote outpost of the European Union.
Rabat quickly welcomed the change of policy from Madrid, describing it as “constructive.”
Algiers recalls Madrid envoy over W.Sahara policy change
https://arab.news/2tczm
Algiers recalls Madrid envoy over W.Sahara policy change
- Spain has maintained generally good relations with Algeria and imports more than 40 percent of its gas needs from the North African country though a pipeline under the Mediterranean
Israel aims to bring ‘permanent demographic change’ to West Bank, Gaza: UN
- UN rights chief Volker Turk says Israeli military operation in West Bank’s north has displaced 32,000 Palestinians
GENEVA: Israel’s actions in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip seem aimed at creating “permanent demographic change,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said on Thursday.
“Taken together, Israel’s actions appear aimed at making a permanent demographic change in Gaza and the West Bank, raising concerns about ethnic cleansing,” Turk said in a speech before the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Turk pointed in particular to an ongoing, year-long Israeli military operation in the West Bank’s north that has caused the displacement of 32,000 Palestinians.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, entire Bedouin herder communities have been displaced by increasing harassment and violence from Israeli settlers, including near Mikhmas to the east of Ramallah, and Ras Ein Al-Auja, in the Jordan Valley, since the start of the year.
In addition to roughly three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.
Israel has approved a series of initiatives this month backed by far-right ministers, including launching a process to register land in the West Bank as “state property” and allowing Israelis to purchase land there directly, in a move condemned by several countries as well as Hamas.
Israel’s current government has accelerated settlement expansion, approving a record 54 settlements in 2025, according to Israeli settlement watchdog NGO Peace Now.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
‘Maximum land, minimum Arabs’
In the Gaza Strip, most of the territory’s 2.2 million inhabitants have been displaced at least once since the start of the war sparked by Hamas’s unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.
“Intensified attacks, the methodical destruction of entire neighborhoods and the denial of humanitarian assistance appeared to aim at a permanent demographic shift in Gaza,” the UN human rights office said in a report last week.
Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also vowed to encourage “emigration” from the Palestinian territories in February.
“We will finally, formally and in practical terms nullify the cursed Oslo Accords and embark on a path toward sovereignty, while encouraging emigration from both Gaza and Judea and Samaria,” he said, using the Biblical term for the West Bank.
“There is no other long-term solution,” added Smotrich, who himself lives in a settlement in the West Bank.
“They want maximum land and minimum Arabs,” Fathi Nimer, a researcher with Palestinian think tank Al-Shabaka, told AFP, referring to a commonly used phrase used to describe Israeli settlement tactics.
