Jordan states its strain halted intercontinental flights from Israeli airport

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TUNIS: A bitter showdown concerning Morocco and its arch-rival Algeria over the disputed Western Sahara territory is causing diplomatic rifts with other nations and even challenges sparking a entire-blown conflict, analysts say.

“We’re viewing a diplomatic war, the place equally sides are resorting to anything brief of open up conflict,” claimed Riccardo Fabiani, North Africa venture director at believe-tank the Intercontinental Disaster Team.

Western Sahara, a Spanish colony till 1975, is generally desert but boasts huge phosphate sources and wealthy Atlantic fishing grounds.

About 80 p.c of it is managed by Morocco and 20 p.c by the Algeria-backed Polisario Entrance which seeks self-perseverance for the nearby Sahrawi people today.

The conflict has long simmered but its dynamics improved in 2020 when then US President Donald Trump regarded Moroccan sovereignty in excess of Western Sahara in exchange for the kingdom’s normalization of relations with Israel.

Emboldened by Washington’s backing, Rabat has been playing hardball ever considering that to persuade other states to observe fit, heightening tensions with Algiers, which has given that cut diplomatic relations with Rabat.

Final week, Morocco reacted angrily when Tunisia’s President Kais Saied greeted Polisario head Brahim Ghali on a purple carpet at Tunis airport as he arrived for a Japan-Africa expense summit.

Slamming the act as “hostile” and “unnecessarily provocative,” Morocco straight away canceled its participation in the significant-profile meeting and withdrew its ambassador for consultations — prompting Tunisia to respond in type.

The incident confirmed that “the Western Sahara conflict is starting off to have repercussions beyond bilateral Morocco and Algerian relations,” Fabiani mentioned. “From now on Morocco will look at Tunisia as section of the professional-Algerian camp.”

Morocco’s 2020 offer with Trump also reset Rabat’s ties with Israel and opened the door to military cooperation with the Jewish point out.

Algeria, which has long supported the Palestinian cause and sees Israeli impact on its doorstep as a risk, slash ties fully with Morocco the next August, citing “hostile acts” — which include the alleged use of Israeli spyware from its senior officials.

Fabiani explained the shifting dynamic experienced intended “the unfreezing” of the Western Sahara conflict.

On the floor, this has taken the type of repeated clashes considering the fact that late 2020 involving Morocco’s military services and the Polisario, which experienced agreed to a ceasefire in 1991.

On the diplomatic entrance, Rabat’s extra assertive stance was apparent in a yr-very long diplomatic dispute with Madrid.

In April 2021, Ghali frequented Spain to be treated for COVID-19, sparking a row that only ended soon after Madrid dropped its decades-prolonged stance of neutrality above Western Sahara and backed a Moroccan approach for constrained self-rule there.

And final month, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI demanded in a speech that his country’s other allies “clarify” their positions on the situation, contacting it “the prism by means of which Morocco sights its global surroundings.”

But observers say that Morocco is not the only celebration in the region to be behaving far more assertively.

Algeria is Africa’s top rated pure gas exporter with pipelines immediately to Europe, and in new months has hosted a steady stream of major European officials hoping to earn favor and new fuel contracts.

Algeria, Africa’s most significant state, has been flush with income due to the fact power rates soared subsequent Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“During the final 10 years, Morocco geared up its diplomacy, in particular in Africa, and turned much more assertive with some EU customers,” reported Dalia Ghanem, a senior analyst at the European Union Institute for Security Studies.

At the exact same time Algeria, under the late president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, “lagged guiding,” she said. “Now, Algeria wants to get back again on the regional arena and be the regional chief in Africa.”

“There was a massive Algerian marketing campaign to recruit Tunisia to its aspect,” stated Anthony Dworkin, a senior coverage fellow at assume tank the European Council on Overseas Relations.

Tunisia, Algeria’s more compact neighbor, is battling with a grinding financial disaster and has also witnessed political turmoil considering that Saied staged a remarkable energy get in July previous calendar year.

Dworkin warned that there was now “a disturbing pattern of every thing in the region becoming observed in a binary way as a result of the prism of Algerian-Moroccan rivalry.”

“Morocco is pushing a narrative of ‘you’re with us or towards us’, and there has been some related rhetoric from Algeria,” he additional, warning European governments to seek balanced relationships with all sides.

“It’s a fragile and perilous moment.”

Last weekend, the United Nations’ Western Sahara envoy Staffan de Mistura frequented the area, but handful of observers see any prospect of progress in prolonged-suspended negotiations.

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