Published on : 25/04/2022 – 17:31
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs affirmed on Monday “not wanting to fuel sterile controversies” with Algiers after the condemnation of the Algerian President, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, of the reversal of Spain in favor of the Moroccan position on the delicate question of Western Sahara, which he considers “morally and historically unacceptable”.
The head of the Spanish diplomacy affirmed, Monday April 25, not “to want to fuel sterile controversies” with Algeria after the condemnation by the Algerian president of the Spanish reversal in favor of the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara occidental.
“I am not going to fuel sterile controversies but Spain has taken a sovereign decision within the framework of international law and there is nothing else to add”, declared José Manuel Albares on Onda Cero radio.
>> To (re)read: “Western Sahara: the origins of the crisis between Spain and Morocco”
José Manuel Albares was questioned about the words of the Algerian president, Abdelmadjid Tebbounewho on Saturday described as “morally and historically unacceptable” Spain’s reversal in favor of Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara which ended a nearly year-long diplomatic estrangement between Madrid and Rabat.
“We have very strong ties with the Spanish state but the head of government (Pedro SanchezEditor’s note) broke everything”, lambasted Abdelmadjid Tebboune, before assuring that Algeria would “never renounce its commitments to ensure the supply of gas to Spain whatever the circumstances”.
Gas exchanges
“From all these declarations, what I retain is the total guarantee of the supply of Algerian gas to Spain and the respect of international contracts”, underlined Monday José Manuel Albares.
Nearly a quarter of the gas imported by Spain came from Algeria in the first quarter.
Spain’s decision to publicly support the Moroccan autonomy plan for the first time on March 18described as “the most serious, realistic and credible basis for the resolution” of the “dispute” in Western Sahara provoked the anger of Algiers, the main support of the Sahrawi separatists in the Front Polisario.
Denouncing a “reversal” of Madrid, Algeria recalled, the next day, its ambassador to Spain.
The conflict in Western Sahara – a vast desert area bordered by fish-filled waters and rich in mining subsoil, considered a “non-autonomous territory” by the UN – has pitted Morocco against the Polisario for decades.
Rabat, which controls nearly 80% of Western Sahara, is proposing an autonomy plan under its sovereignty, while the Polisario is calling for a self-determination referendum, planned by the UN when a ceasefire was signed in 1991. -fire, but never materialized.
With AFP