Algeria breaks off diplomatic relations with Morocco

"Algeria has decided to break off diplomatic relations with Morocco as of today". The Algerian government has announced this, citing a "series of circumstances" between the two countries, which have been at loggerheads for several months.

The Algerian foreign minister, Ramtane Lamamra, confirmed this decision to the media in a direct order from the Algerian president himself, Abdelmayid Tebune, who had already been warning of his dissatisfaction with recent Moroccan policies, especially with regard to the Western Sahara issue, in which Algiers is an ally of the Polisario Front. 
 

Alongside this, in an interview with local media, Tebune expressed his concern over Morocco's position on the Kabyle tribes' independence movement that Morocco's ambassador, Omar Hilale, issued at the UN after declaring Rabat's support for the "right to self-determination of the Kabyle people". Following his statement, Algeria proceeded to withdraw its ambassador in Rabat, a move that met with no response from the Alawi kingdom and was already evidence of the tense relations between the two states.

Similarly, the Algerian government has reproached Morocco for its alleged 'support' for terrorist organisations considered by Algeria, as well as for the espionage to which the Algerian government was subjected through the 'Pegasus' software, for which it blames the Moroccan kingdom directly, despite the constant disassociations that the Arab country has defended. 

Morocco's King Mohammed VI's rapprochement with Algeria after reaching out to the country in his speech on the occasion of the feast of the throne was of little use. In it, the monarch stressed his desire to "work together, as soon as he deems appropriate, to develop fraternity in the relations that our peoples have built through years of common struggle". He also stressed that "the current state of these relations does not satisfy us, is not in the interests of our peoples, and is not acceptable to many countries".

Furthermore, Morocco reiterated its desire to open borders with the neighbouring country and develop fraternal relations between two peoples, which the king referred to as "two neighbours and two brotherly peoples".