A new Arab cold war is dividing North Africa. How did it come to this?

Algeria’s rupture with the UAE exposes a battle for influence stretching from Western Sahara to Libya and the Sahel This week, Algeria made an unexpected announcement that it was severing diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The UAE ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry and given 48 hours to leave.

In an official statement, Algerian authorities accused Abu Dhabi of increasingly frequent “provocative and hostile actions,” noting that all “efforts to preserve bilateral ties had been exhausted.” However, no specific incident that could have triggered this decision was cited.

The first practical consequence of the break in diplomatic ties was the closure of Algerian airspace.

Starting September 11, the country’s airspace is closed to UAE civil and military aircraft.

A temporary exception remains for commercial flights headed to and from Algiers’ Houari Boumediene Airport; they may continue to operate until the end of 2026, when the air services agreement signed in 2013 expires.

For its part, the UAE expressed hope that the rupture of relations will be temporary.

Anwar Gargash, an advisor to the president of the UAE, noted (without, however, directly mentioning Algeria) that diplomacy should be based on clear interests rather than “riddles and signals requiring decoding.” Read more Algeria cuts diplomatic ties with UAE In fact, there is no mystery here.

The decision had been in the making for months, and the reasons for the diplomatic rupture are scattered all over the map of North Africa – from Western Sahara to Libya’s Fezzan province and Mali.

In these regions, Algeria has increasingly encountered the presence of the UAE, which usually sided with Algeria’s rivals.

From partnership to suspicions Diplomatic relations between the two Arab nations were established in 1974 and developed for decades without any major crises.

In 2015, UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed described Algeria as one of the UAE’s most important partners.

A joint commission was active, and dozens of agreements were signed.

In February 2023, the two sides intended to elevate their relationship to the level of a strategic partnership.