The Government will approve today the approval of the new ambassador of Algeria, 19 months after the withdrawal of the previous one

Algiers called its representative for consultations the day after Sánchez's letter to Mohamed VI about the Sahara became known

MADRID, 14 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Council of Ministers will approve this Tuesday the appointment of Abdelfetá Daghmun as the new ambassador of Algeria to Spain after the Maghreb country called its previous representative for consultations in March 2022 in response to the Government's support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara , according to government sources told Europa Press.

Daghmun, who was already 'number two' of the Algerian diplomatic legation in Spain, will take over from Said Musi, called for consultations on March 19, 2022 by Algiers, one day after Rabat unveiled the letter from the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to King Mohamed VI in which he maintained that the Moroccan autonomy plan of 2007 was "the most serious, credible and realistic basis" to resolve the Western Sahara conflict.

The gesture, which served to leave behind the serious diplomatic crisis with Morocco due to its position regarding the former Spanish colony and the reception of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, opened a new front with Algeria, the main supporter of the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Republic. Democratic (SADR).

This first step, motivated among other things by the discomfort at not having been informed in advance by the Spanish Government, was followed in June of that same year by the suspension of the Treaty of Friendship by the Algerian president, Abdelmayid Tebune, and the reduction to minimum of commercial transactions between the two countries, with the consequent million-dollar losses for Spanish companies that export to the Maghreb country.

However, in the 19 months that have passed, Algeria has kept its gas supply unchanged - it is the main supplier -, something that the Executive has always highlighted, while, in particular, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares , the hand has remained extended towards normalization, ensuring that Spain wants to have "the best relations" with this country as well as with Morocco.

The news of the imminent arrival of a new Algerian ambassador, with which Algeria would be taking a step to leave behind the diplomatic crisis with Spain, was known a few days ago, but so far the Algerian Government has not made a public statement, nor has it It was done by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has made discretion in the management of this crisis its flag.

However, an Algerian diplomat recently told the weekly 'Jeune Afrique' that "in the short term a resumption (of the relationship) at an appreciable level cannot be foreseen." "You have to give time for relationships to return to the level they were at," he warned.

For his part, the president of the Algerian-Spanish Circle of Commerce and Industry (CCIAE), Djamel Eddin Buabdalá, confirmed to the media 'Tout sur l'Algerie' that "there were contacts between the two parties in September in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly" and "a progressive return of relations between Algeria and Spain" was agreed.

According to Buabdalá, the speech given by Sánchez before the General Assembly contributed to this, in which he did not mention the Moroccan autonomy plan and limited himself to supporting "a mutually acceptable political solution within the framework of the United Nations charter and in Security Council resolutions".

The position maintained by the Government in recent weeks following the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel on October 7 and the subsequent Israeli response by bombing the Gaza Strip has also helped. Sánchez has defended that the only way to resolve the conflict in the Middle East is through the materialization of the two-state solution and in this sense he has proposed holding an international conference to move towards this objective.