Algeria said Thursday it was closing its airspace to Emirati-registered civilian and military aircraft after cutting diplomatic ties with the Gulf country following years of tension.
In a statement announcing the severing of diplomatic relations, Algiers accused the Gulf country of “provocative and hostile acts”, but it remained unclear what triggered the rupture.
The Algerian defence ministry said the airspace ban would go into effect Friday, with the exception of commercial flights to and from Algiers airport, which would continue until the end of 2026.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has often referred to the UAE as a “micro-state” or “statelet” seeking to destabilise several countries in the region, citing Libya, Mali and Sudan.
The North African country, which has signalled for months a diplomatic break, said the decision came “after exhausting all avenues to preserve bilateral relations” with the UAE.
The Emirati foreign ministry later said it hoped the decision would be temporary so as to maintain “fraternal ties” with Algeria.
The Algerian foreign ministry said it had warned Abu Dhabi several times but the UAE “persisted in its actions, reaching a point where they could no longer be considered acceptable or tolerable”.
“Algeria spared no effort to draw the Emirati side’s attention to, and to warn it against, the dire consequences that could result from its regrettable and unjustified conduct,” the ministry said.
In a televised interview in July, Tebboune again lashed out against Abu Dhabi, saying “wherever they set foot, blood flows”.
“We want them to stay away, so that blood does not flow in our country,” he added.
At that time, Tebboune said a diplomatic break “would have happened long ago” had Algeria not sought to avoid “deepening divisions” in the Arab world.
On Thursday, Algiers said it was giving the UAE ambassador 48 hours “to comply with the decision”.
– Sahel interference –
Tensions between the two countries have been fuelled by several developments in recent years.
In the Sahel, Algeria was “striving to maintain some semblance of stability”, whereas “the UAE was working directly counter to that”, said Geoff Porter, an analyst with the North Africa Risk Consulting group.
“Algeria viewed the UAE’s interference in North African and Sahelian affairs as not only contrary to Algeria’s foreign policy principles, but as an indirect threat to Algerian security,” he added.
Porter cited as points of contention Abu Dhabi’s support for eastern Libya’s military leader Khalifa Haftar, the backing of the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, and a drone base in Mauritania, which neighbours Algeria.
Last year, Algerian state television denounced what it called a hostile media campaign after UAE-based broadcaster Sky News Arabia aired an interview with historian Mohamed Amine Belghit, who made controversial remarks questioning the existence of Algeria’s indigenous Amazigh culture.
Belghit was jailed in Algeria but later pardoned by Tebboune.
Further divisions between Algiers and Abu Dhabi also stemmed from diverging diplomatic policies, including the UAE’s normalisation of ties with Israel in 2020.
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