ALGERIAN PATRIOTS - ENGLISH

One year after its adoption, Resolution 2797 has produced no agreement, no recognition and no ending. Massad Boulos's recent remarks are a reminder of what the text said from the very first day, and of what Algiers has never ceased to maintain: a negotiating framework has never been a substitute for a settlement. The Moroccan defensive wall divides the territory between the zone controlled by Rabat and the zone held by the Polisario Front. A national holiday for an unfinished conflict On 4 November 2025, barely four days after the Security Council vote, Morocco's Royal Cabinet raised 31 October to the rank of national holiday: "Aïd Al Wahda", the Day of Unity. Two decrees then made it a paid day off, in the civil service and the private sector alike. The message to Moroccan public opinion left no room for doubt: Resolution 2797 had supposedly sealed the Kingdom's sovereignty, and the file now belonged to history. The calendar, however, has a sense...

Since the autumn of 2025, a quiet refrain has spread through certain capitals and newsrooms: that of an imminent reconciliation between Algeria and Morocco. US envoy Massad Boulos has shuttled repeatedly between Algiers and Rabat, King Mohammed VI extended his hand to President Abdelmadjid Tebboune after the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2797, and some European think tanks have even gone so far as to invoke the Franco-German precedent. This reading rests on a fundamental misunderstanding. It confuses a de-escalation desired by outside parties with the real conditions for reconciliation. Those conditions are not met today, and nothing suggests they will be in the foreseeable future. A deep rupture, not a passing diplomatic incident The severing of relations on August 24, 2021 was not an outburst of anger. It was the culmination of a series of acts Algiers regarded as hostile: the Moroccan diplomatic note at the United Nations invoking a so-called "right t...

Washington–Tehran: Is Algeria the Keystone of a Shadow Diplomacy After the Dead End of Force? On the return of the "trusted mediator" to the heart of the US–Iran equation, between the memory of the 1981 Accords, the signals from New York and the Algiers stopover A relationship fractured for more than four decades. Illustration: Shutterstock. When power politics reach their limits, history asks its old question once again: who can open the doors that remain shut? In the US–Iran file, one name comes back every time the exits close: Algiers. The dead end of force and the limits of "maximum pressure" The "maximum pressure" policy launched by Donald Trump after his unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 has neither brought Tehran to its knees nor changed its strategic posture. Instead, it has produced a more fragile regional environment, in which flashpoints accumulate and proxy wars spread. After years of sanctions, threats an...

From Béjaïa to Al-Quds, from Tlemcen to Algiers, Algeria has never bargained over its loyalty to the Ummah. Against it stand five centuries of alliances between the Sharifian throne and Madrid, Lisbon, Paris and Tel Aviv. This is the story some would rather we forgot. Artistic depiction of a horseman from the era of Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi. Some peoples write their history in blood; some regimes rewrite it in press releases. The Moroccan throne today presents itself as the guardian of Al-Quds and the heir of Jerusalem's liberators. But history has a memory. It remembers those who answered the call, and those who looked away. Let us be clear: this text is not aimed at the Moroccan people, a brotherly people who take to the streets for Gaza and share with us our faith, our language and a long common history. It is aimed at a power, the Makhzen, and at a constant in its policy. Sidi Boumediene, son of Béjaïa and Tlemcen, in the service of Al-Quds Abu Madyan Shu'ayb, ...

On 10 September 2026, Algiers severed diplomatic relations with Abu Dhabi. That same day, a thousand kilometres to the south, two European hostages held for more than a year were released in the Sahel. No direct causal thread links the two events — yet they tell the same story. I. The facts In a statement of a few lines, Algeria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs brought decades of relations with the United Arab Emirates to an end. The text denounced what it called the multiplication of provocative or hostile acts on Abu Dhabi's part, insisted that Algiers had exercised restraint and issued repeated warnings, and concluded that such conduct had reached the limits of what is admissible or tolerable between two sovereign states. The Emirati ambassador, summoned to the ministry the same day, was formally notified of the decision and given forty-eight hours. That evening, the Ministry of National Defence closed Algerian airspace to Emirati military and civilian aircraft with eff...

For decades, Algerian foreign policy was built on a solid foundation: respect for state sovereignty, non-interference, rejection of foreign military interventions, and the pursuit of political solutions to conflicts. These principles have shaped Algeria's diplomatic identity since independence and have given it a distinctive credibility on the international stage. Yet the current period marks a historic turning point. The international system that emerged after the Cold War is undergoing profound transformation. Multilateral institutions are weakening, international law is increasingly challenged by power politics, and regional powers are asserting their interests without always adhering to the principles they publicly champion. In such an environment, a fundamental question arises in Algiers: How can a nation defend its principles when its adversaries respect none of them? Today, Algeria appears to be offering a pragmatic answer: preserve its principles, but no longer sacrifice it...

History is not negotiated with chauvinistic Moroccan myths; it is written through facts, dates, and geography. While modern narratives attempt to appropriate the glorious epic of the conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711, a rigorous analysis of the chronology and political sociology of the Maghreb dismantles the anachronism of attributing a role in this founding event to present-day Morocco. The historical reality is unambiguous: the army that crossed the Strait of Gibraltar in 711 was commanded by Tariq ibn Ziyad, a leader from the Central Maghreb, corresponding largely to present-day Algeria, and fought under the banner of the Umayyad Empire. At that time, the lands of modern Morocco had not yet seen the founding of Fez, the oldest major city of the contemporary Moroccan state, whose establishment would only take place several decades later. Indeed, nearly 80 to 100 years separate the conquest of al-Andalus from the birth of Fez and the emergence of the first Idrisid state. Meanwh...

The narrative surrounding Morocco’s relationship with the Algerian Revolution has long been shaped by biased historical accounts , mostly propagated by Moroccan state discourse . This version of events portrays King Mohammed V as an unwavering ally of Algeria in its struggle for independence. However, a deeper examination of historical facts reveals that this support was neither unconditional nor altruistic . Rather, it was a political tool , used by the Moroccan monarchy to strengthen its position, gain leverage in negotiations with France, and pursue territorial ambitions at Algeria’s expense. Strategic, Self-Interested Support When the Algerian War of Independence erupted in 1954, Morocco had just gained its own independence in 1956. Still grappling with internal instability and political uncertainty, King Mohammed V saw the Algerian struggle as an opportunity —both to consolidate his rule and to extract concessions from France. By offering limited assistance to the FLN (Nationa...

In November 1975, following Spain’s withdrawal from Western Sahara, the territory entered a new phase of its history. The agreements concluded between Morocco and Mauritania immediately sparked strong opposition from the Polisario Front, which claimed the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination in accordance with the principles defended in international forums. The months that followed were marked by a profound humanitarian crisis. Large numbers of civilians left their homes to escape the fighting, leading to significant population movements across the desert regions. Contemporary accounts describe particularly difficult living conditions characterized by insecurity, a lack of resources, and the human consequences of the conflict. Faced with this situation, Algeria provided support to displaced Sahrawi populations, in keeping with its traditional policy of supporting national liberation movements and defending the right of peoples to self-determination. Faithful to the principles ...