The Diplomat
The Algerian government yesterday described as “unacceptable” statements by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, in which – in response to President Abdelmayid Tebboune – he described as “sterile polemics” the diplomatic problems that have arisen between the two countries over the Spanish decision to defend the autonomy plan for Western Sahara.
“I am not going to feed sterile polemics, but Spain has taken a sovereign decision within international legality, and there is nothing more to add, and of all these statements, what I am left with is what we have been saying for weeks: the total guarantee of the supply of Algerian gas to Spain and the scrupulous respect for the international contracts that our companies have with the Algerian government”, Albares declared yesterday during an interview with Onda Cero.
With these words, the minister responded to statements by the President of Algeria, Abdelmayid Tebboune, who last Saturday described as “unacceptable, ethically and historically”, the turn given by Spain regarding Western Sahara and accused the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez, of having broken, with it, the “cordial and strong” relations that Spain and Algeria maintained. Tebboune, however, guaranteed that his country will absolutely honor all agreements for the supply of gas to Spain.
The special envoy for Western Sahara and the Maghreb at the Algerian Foreign Ministry, Ammar Belani, said yesterday that the words of Albares to Onda Cero “in response to the statements of the President of the Republic” are “regrettable and totally unacceptable” and “certainly will not contribute to a rapid return to normal bilateral relations, and the Spanish minister will have to assume the consequences”.
In any case, this is not the first time that Albares has used the expression “sterile polemics” to refer to this diplomatic problem with Algeria. Last Friday, the minister declared in Rome that “Spain aspires to have the best relationship with Algeria and that it is not incompatible to have a good relationship with Morocco with having an excellent one with Algeria” and, for this reason, he did not want to pronounce himself on the possibility of Algeria revising upwards the contracts with the Spanish companies because he did not want to “feed sterile polemics”.
