Algeria has launched a new diplomatic plan to counter Morocco's recent successes in the region. This plan is mainly aimed at Mauritania and Tunisia. Algerian president Abdelmajid Tebboune chaired, Monday, a session of the high Security Council, devoted to the examination of «unprecedented developments that have recently occurred in the region, most precisely in the neighboring region», wrote the Algerian presidency in a press release. The statement referred to the intervention of the Royal Armed Forces in November 2020, in Guerguerate, the US recognition of Morocco's sovereignty over the Sahara and the normalization of ties between Morocco and Israel. Developments that no highest authorities in the Maghreb region have officially condemned, apart from Algeria's. To fill the gap left by the presidency - as admitted in an article published by Algerian daily L'Expression - the President has decided to take the reins of diplomacy dedicated to the Maghreb region. Immediately after this meeting, the Minister of Health, Abderrahmane Benbouzid, flew to Nouakchott to deliver medical aids intended for the prevention against Covid-19. In June, Algiers had already sent medical assistance to Nouakchott, it was Foreign minister Sabri Boukadoum who was in charge of the mission. Boukadoum, responsible for the isolation of Algiers ? Sending medical aid to Mauritania is no coincidence. The generosity comes in a context marked by a resumption of good diplomatic ties between Morocco and Mauritania. In December, the second session of the Moroccan-Mauritanian joint commission took place. The meeting was an opportunity for Rabat and Nouakchott to strengthen ties after a three-year crisis. Algeria will also target Tunisia with its new diplomacy. On Monday, Prime Minister Said Djerad phoned his Tunisian counterpart Hichem Mechichi. The phone call was to calm the anger of Tunisians down after Algerian ambassador criticized Tunisian voices that pointed out at Algeria's anti-Morocco policy. Through these two diplomatic actions targeted at Mauritania and Tunisia, Algeria is trying to strengthen ties with the two neighboring countries. Especially since Tunis and Nouakchott are in the sight of officials in Tel Aviv to normalize ties with Israel. For the record, the Jewish state had an embassy in the Mauritanian capital from 1999 to 2009. Like Morocco, Tunisia had closed its liaison office in Israel in 2000. The main absentee in this Algerian diplomatic reaction is Sabri Boukadoum. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was kept out. According to L'Expression, the spokesperson for the National Democratic Rally (the presidential party), listed in an article the failures attributed to Boukadoum in the Maghreb, the Sahara and Mali.
