Tension is growing between Algeria and Morocco

 With the closure, by the Algerian authorities, of its airspace to all Moroccan civilian and military aircraft, the level of tension between the two states is raised, aggravating a difficult diplomatic situation that could degenerate in a dangerous way. The question between the two North African states concerns the situation of Western Sahara, south of Morocco, controlled by the Polisario Front which is fighting for independence from the government of Rabat, claiming the sovereignty of the territories inhabited by the Sahrawi people and for this reason recognized by the United Nations, as the legitimate representative of those populations. These territories include huge deposits of minerals and phosphates, a material used for fertilizers, which is the real reason why Morocco refuses to grant the Polisario Front a referendum for independence. To remedy the situation of the annexation of these territories by Morocco, which took place in the seventies of the last century, the Polisario Front decreed the birth of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, whose government in exile is hosted in Algeria, which, in fact, it has become the patron country of this cause. The Moroccan country is supported for its cause by the US and Israel, this as a consequence of Trump's promise to support Rabat in the event of recognition of the Israeli state, so Washington recognized the sovereignty of Morocco over the territories claimed by the Polisario Front; recently Algeria was hit by fire by the Moroccan armed forces, which operated using an Israeli-made drone. Rabat, during the year, opened two diplomatic crises with European countries: the first with Spain, for having welcomed a leader of the Polisario Front to give him medical treatment, the second with Germany, which defined Western Sahara as a territory occupied by Morocco and to have asked the United Nations for an emergency meeting of the Security Council to request the holding of the referendum on the independence of Western Sahara. Morocco responded to these international solicitations by counterattacking with an action against Algeria, asking the United Nations itself for the right to self-determination of the Algerian region of Kabylia with a Berber majority. Algiers had previously classified the movement that supports the autonomy of the Berber region as an Islamist terrorist and the failure to withdraw the Moroccan proposal resulted in the withdrawal of the Algerian ambassador to Morocco. Contributing to this diplomatic tension was the discovery of Rabat's use of Israeli software capable of spying on Algerian officials and the alleged Moroccan involvement in the fires that devastated northern Algeria and caused at least ninety victims. The suspension of flights with the Moroccan flag over Algerian skies wanted by the Algiers government is part of this scenario of respective rudenesses, which denote a confrontation of low military intensity, but with high diplomatic tensions, which also affect economic relations: after the withdrawal of its ambassador Algiers announced the interruption of the export of its gas to Spain through Morocco: for Rabat this means a loss between 50 and 200 million euros, due to the 7% share of the total value of the gas that arrives on Spanish territory; and the ban on overflight also affects the Moroccan tourist industry, which bases arrivals in its country through air traffic. At the level of a global analysis of the southern Mediterranean region, there is a fear of further destabilization, which, if added to the Libyan situation, where the civil war has also extended to Mali and involves great powers, more or less directly, can bring the whole coastal strip to a state of uncertainty that could be reflected in the European countries bordering the Mediterranean; moreover, Islamic radicalism could take this situation as an opportunity to infiltrate local crises and exploit uncontrolled migrations to reach the West. In fact, it should not be forgotten that one of the means, however not new, used by Morocco to exert pressure on Spain, was precisely that of leaving its borders uncontrolled to encourage a migratory flow towards the Spanish country. This situation is also the umpteenth confrontation of the USA with the European Union, which each support the opposing contenders, underlining the profound difference of views that has arisen in the Western field.