Algeria Suspends Friendship Treaty with Spain Over Western Sahara Dispute

"The Spanish authorities have engaged in a campaign to justify the position they have adopted on Western Sahara in violation of their legal, moral and political obligations as the administering power of the territory that weigh on the Kingdom of Spain until the decolonization of Western Sahara is declared completed by the United Nations," the statement from the President of the Republic states.

Algeria has never digested Spain’s change of position on the Sahara. "These same authorities who assume responsibility for an unjustifiable turnaround of their position since the announcements of March 18, 2022 by which the current Spanish government has given its full support to the illegal and illegitimate formula of internal autonomy advocated by the occupying power, are working to promote a colonial fait accompli by using fallacious arguments," it adds.

For the Presidency of the Republic, "this attitude of the Spanish government is in violation of the international legality imposed on it by its status as an administering power and the efforts of the United Nations and the new personal envoy of the Secretary-General and directly contribute to the deterioration of the situation in Western Sahara and the region".

In view of all the above, "Algeria has decided to proceed with the immediate suspension of the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation concluded with the Kingdom of Spain and which until now framed the development of relations between the two countries".