What is stopping Algiers from breaking off relations with Dubai?
It took until the last meeting of the High Security Council on 10 January to see a timid official reaction from this body, which brings together the head of state, the prime minister, the interior and foreign ministers, as well as the army chief of staff and the heads of the security services (police, gendarmerie, internal security, external security and army security). This body was careful not to mention the United Arab States by name. It limited itself to "expressing regret at the hostile acts committed against Algeria by a brotherly Arab country".
These 'hostile acts' have been detailed on numerous occasions in the Algerian press. In its 27 July edition, the Arabic-language daily El-Khabar listed the following: "Morocco supplies itself with an espionage system against Algeria. Emirati pressure on Mauritania to normalise relations with Israel. Tunisia was encouraged to break off relations with Algeria in exchange for substantial financial aid from the Emirates. An attempt to flood Algeria with 2 million units of psychotropic drugs from Libya"
Algeria-Emirates relations
It was too much to remain impassive and take no action to "call this brother country to order". During his visit to Russia, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune attended the St. Petersburg forum on 16 June, when Emir Mohammed ben Zayed Al Nahyane, President of the UAE, refused to join him on the podium. Just as he had refused the mediation of President Putin who, at Tebboune's request, wanted to organise a three-way meeting. Emir Ben Zayed also refused a Kuwaiti mediation requested by Algeria.
Despite all these intimidations and humiliations, Algiers continues to turn a blind eye to Dubai. It is business as usual. Tebboune went so far as to fire his communications minister in the middle of the night, as soon as the first press article appeared on the website of the daily En-Nahar on 20 June 2023. Just as he did not react at all to the recognition of the Moroccan nationality of Western Sahara and the opening of an Emirati consulate in Dakhla. For much less than that, and only for expressing support for the autonomy plan for Western Sahara proposed by King Mohammed VI, Algiers reacted violently. It withdrew its ambassador in Madrid, froze the friendship and cooperation agreement and froze trade.
The same is true of relations with Morocco, which are at an all-time low. Nowhere in the world do two neighbouring countries united by blood, culture, history and the struggle for liberation experience such a serious deterioration that the Algerian authorities themselves are unable to explain. Land and air borders have been closed, thousands of families from both countries have been separated and all trade has been frozen. Algeria, a country with historic relations with Russia and considered an ally of Moscow, went so far as to boycott the Arab-Russian cooperation meeting on 20 December simply because it was taking place in Marrakesh.
When he received US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Algiers on 30 March 2022, Abdelmadjid Tebboune found no other alibi to justify his hostility towards Morocco and the severing of diplomatic and trade relations than to invoke "the aggression of 1963". An alibi that many observers consider "frankly ridiculous".
So what explains Algiers' passivity towards a state it accuses of "providing Morocco with a system of espionage against Algeria"? Emirati pressure on Mauritania to normalise relations with Israel. Incitement to Tunisia to break off relations with Algeria in exchange for substantial Emirati financial aid. Attempt to flood Algeria with 2 million units of psychotropic drugs from Libya? It does not take a genius to realise that the Emiratis have the Algerian leadership at its weakest point. The money accumulated in Dubai banks, amounting to billions of dollars diverted from the Algerian treasury. Tebboune and his entourage know very well that at the slightest move by the Emiratis they will not hesitate to freeze their assets and denounce them publicly. The UAE is on the right track. Generals, ministers, businessmen, press chiefs and their heads.
Tebboune and his sons have so far made Dubai their tax haven and, above all, the safest place to protect their loot. That is why they are now prepared to suffer any humiliation without flinching.
