In his first public commentary on the revived Morocco-Spain relations, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Saturday described Spain’s favoring of Morocco’s position on Western Sahara as “morally and historically unacceptable.”
Speaking to national media, Tebboune denounced the Spanish government for its support for the Moroccan autonomy plan. “We have very strong ties with the Spanish state but the head of government broke everything,” he said.
Algiers last month recalled its ambassador from Madrid in protest against the Spanish shift.
Algeria condemned the “abrupt about-turn” by Madrid, which had previously sought to maintain neutrality in the decades-old conflict over the territory disputed by Morocco and the Algiers-backed Polisario Front independence movement.
The Algerian president, however, maintained that economic relations between Spain and Algeria would not be affected. “We Will not abandon its commitment to supplying Spain with gas, whatever the circumstances.”
In a previous protest, Secretary-General of the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chakib Kaid, went to Rome where he announced that “Algeria will review all its agreements with Spain, in all areas, to see how the relationship develops in the future.”
The official said that “halting gas exports to the Iberian country is not currently possible,” due to the binding nature of the agreement, set to expire by 2030, but added that a possible refusal to renew the deal is possible, as Algiers explores a possible shift of the exports of its natural resources to Italy.
In addition, State-owned energy giant Sonatrach warned it could increase the price of its gas sales to Spain, against the backdrop of a diplomatic row with Madrid over disputed Western Sahara.
“Since the start of the Ukraine crisis, gas and oil prices have skyrocketed. Algeria has decided to stick, for all its customers, to relatively fair contract prices,” Sonatrach CEO Toufik Hakkar told the national news agency APS.
“But a ‘recalculation’ of prices for our Spanish customer is not ruled out,” he said.
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