25 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The President of Algeria, Abdelmayid Tebune, has recognized that right now there are no diplomatic advances in the stalled relations with Spain after the, in his words, “false step” taken by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, when recognizing the year past the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara and which led to the “freezing”, in the words of the Algerian president, of the friendship treaty between Algeria and Spain.
“Right now there is nothing new,” the Algerian president declared in this regard in a conversation with various media outlets in the country, in which he reiterated once again that his misgivings are directed towards the Spanish government and the people of Spain.
The Algerian president has emphasized that the friendship agreement with Spain is “frozen, but not cancelled” and recalls that there are still agreements with the Spanish government in force, as it maintains with other countries such as Italy.
However, once again he regretted the “unsympathetic act” of Spain in betting on Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara — which annuls the self-determination claims of the Saharawi people –, the reason for the freezing of these relations.
This support led Algeria to withdraw its ambassador in Madrid on March 19 last year, one day after Rabat announced the Spanish government’s decision to support the initiative.
“But the Spanish people have nothing to do with it. We maintain very good relations with them. We have great respect for the King of Spain and we continue to cooperate with other organisations”, he explained in statements collected by ‘Tout sur L’Algerie’.
“Personally”, the Algerian president stressed, “I feel sorry for the current state of relations, but Algeria is not at the origin of this crisis”.
