Is the Saudi plan to transfer Hamas leaders to Algiers viable?
In a confidential document sent to the Quai d'Orsay, Saudi Arabia proposes the deployment of an Arab peacekeeping force in Gaza and the evacuation of Hamas leaders to the Algerian capital.
This is the outline of a plan that is part of numerous Saudi initiatives to end hostilities between the Israeli army and the El-Kassam brigades of the Hamas movement.
Two-point plan
As chair of the Arab-Islamic committee that emerged from the Riyadh summit on 11 November, Saudi Arabia is stepping up its efforts on the international stage to resolve the difficult Israeli-Palestinian equation. To this end, it has drawn up a two-point plan, as mentioned above.
While the deployment of an Arab peacekeeping force is apparently unproblematic, the same cannot be said of the exfiltration of Hamas leaders to Algiers.
This is reminiscent of the evacuation of large numbers of Palestinian fighters from Lebanon to Algeria in 1982. The Algerian situation has completely changed and the Algeria of 2023 is no longer the Algeria of the 1980s.
Algeria and Hamas
It should be stressed that the Saudi proposal is based on Algeria's good relations with Iran and Qatar, the two main supporters of Hamas. But Algeria is no longer in the odour of sanctity with the Palestinian Islamist group.
Indeed, since the outbreak of hostilities on 7 October, not a single press release from the Algerian authorities has mentioned the resistance role played by Hamas. Not even the slightest communication with its leaders. Even the former president of the Movement for a Society for Peace (MSP), Abderrazak Makri, who was due to make a stopover in Doha to meet Hamas leader Smaïl Henia before continuing on to Kuala Lumpur, was forbidden to leave Algerian territory.
Relations between Algiers and Hamas first soured in October, when the Algerians refused to accept Smaïl Henia's request to attend the Arab summit in Algiers. Thereafter, a rift developed between the two sides. Algeria's support for the Palestinian cause during the Gaza crisis was derisory.
It was limited to a cargo plane with humanitarian aid sent a fortnight after the start of the Israeli offensive against Gaza. No diplomatic action by the Algerian regime to support Hamas vis-à-vis influential states. No message of support for the Hamas leadership. The Algerian population was even banned from going out and showing their support for the Palestinian cause. This is what led one political observer to state that 'by its complicit silence and inertia, Algeria has proved itself to be an unparalleled supporter of Israel'.
It should be stressed that the Saudi proposal was made without consulting Algiers. This is due to the freshness of relations between the two countries. This is a serious mistake on Riyadh's part, involving one of the parties in its plan without consulting it beforehand. Just as Hamas was not consulted. This does not augur well for the success of such an ambitious plan.
