Jordan’s King Offers to Mediate Morocco-Algeria Diplomatic Rift

The Moroccan-Algerian crisis remains a major concern for the actors in the Arab and Muslim world. On the sidelines of his state visit to Algiers on December 3 and 4, King Abdullah II proposed a roadmap - focused on the economic aspect - for the resumption of diplomatic relations between Algeria and Morocco, reports Maghreb Intelligence. With Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the Jordanian sovereign was to insist on the need to relaunch the Maghreb-Europe gas pipeline (GME) closed by Algeria which no longer renewed the contract at the end of October 2021, by ricochet to convince him to work for the thawing of natural gas exports to Spain via Morocco.

This thawing could not only allow Morocco to resume a process of economic cooperation with Algeria, but also to benefit from certain privileges such as preferential prices related to the passage of natural gas through Moroccan territory. The advantage of this possible thawing for Algeria is that it could resume its leadership in the gas market in the Iberian Peninsula and in the South European market. Since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Qatar and the United States have dominated the gas market.

King Abdullah II also proposed frank and direct talks between Algeria, Morocco and Spain on the Sahara issue, one of the points of friction between these three countries.