Algeria Severs Diplomatic Ties With UAE, Closes Airspace to Emirati Aircraft

Algeria announced on Thursday that it was cutting diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates, accusing Abu Dhabi of years of “provocative and hostile acts” and interference in its national and regional affairs. The decision, which Algiers said came “after exhausting all avenues to preserve bilateral relations,” marks one of the most dramatic ruptures in Arab diplomacy in recent years.

The Algerian foreign ministry summoned the UAE ambassador to its headquarters, formally notified him of the decision and gave him 48 hours to leave the country. Shortly after, Algeria announced it would close its airspace to all UAE-registered civilian and military aircraft from Friday. UAE commercial flights to and from Algiers will be exempt from the ban until the end of 2026, when the current contract expires.

UAE Hopes Decision Is ‘Temporary’

The Emirati foreign ministry responded by saying it hoped the decision would be temporary so as to maintain “fraternal ties” with Algeria. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirms the UAE’s appreciation for the brotherly Algerian people and its pride in the bonds that unite the two peoples, particularly through the Algerian community residing in the UAE and Algerian visitors,” the ministry said in a statement. Anwar Gargash, a diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, wrote on X that diplomatic relations should be based on “rationality, communication and clarity of interests” rather than “riddles and signals that require decoding,” without explicitly mentioning Algeria.

Years of Mounting Tension

The break did not come out of nowhere. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has repeatedly referred to the UAE in speeches as a “micro-state” or “statelet” seeking to destabilise several countries in the region, citing Libya, Mali and Sudan. “Wherever they set foot, blood flows,” Tebboune said in a televised interview in July. “We want them to stay away, so that blood does not flow in our country”. 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.

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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”.

Diverging Regional Policies

The two countries have been on opposing sides of several regional issues for 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. Porter cited Abu Dhabi’s support for eastern Libya’s military leader Khalifa Haftar, its backing of the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, and a drone base in Mauritania, which neighbours Algeria.

The two countries are also on opposing sides of the decades-old Western Sahara dispute. The UAE supports Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over the territory, where it has a consulate, while Algeria backs the Polisario Front, which seeks an independent Western Sahara. Algeria opposes normalisation with Israel, while the UAE and Algeria’s regional rival Morocco established diplomatic ties with Israel under the US-brokered Abraham Accords in 2020.

Further divisions stemmed from a hostile media campaign after UAE-based broadcaster Sky News Arabia aired an interview with a historian who made controversial remarks questioning the existence of Algeria’s indigenous Amazigh culture.

The rupture reflects a broader realignment in North Africa and the Sahel, where Algeria and the UAE have increasingly found themselves backing opposing sides in conflicts from Libya to Sudan. For Algiers, the decision to sever ties after months of signalling represents a definitive break with a Gulf power it now views not merely as a rival but as a threat to its own security.

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