Morocco–Algeria

What it is

Morocco and Algeria are neighboring North African states that share a land border closed since 1994 and no diplomatic relations since August 2021. Together they account for roughly 70 million people and the two largest armies in North Africa by equipment value. Their rivalry is structural: Morocco's monarchy aligns closely with the West and, since 2020, Israel; Algeria's military-led governing establishment, the so-called "pouvoir," positions itself as a non-aligned power and the principal external patron of the Polisario Front, which seeks independence for Western Sahara, a territory Morocco controls and regards as its southern provinces. The deadlock leaves the Maghreb as the only Arab sub-region without a functioning integration body.

History

The two states have been in intermittent conflict since independence. A brief border war, the Sand War of October 1963, settled into decades of low-level rivalry. Algeria backed the Polisario Front from its founding in 1973, and when Spain withdrew from Western Sahara in 1975 and Morocco launched the Green March to annex the territory, Algeria became the primary external supporter of the independence movement. The UN brokered a ceasefire in 1991, establishing the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) to oversee a vote that has never been held. Algeria closed the land border in 1994 after Morocco imposed visas on Algerians following a deadly attack in Marrakesh that Morocco attributed, without proof, to Algerian intelligence. Normalization efforts in the 2000s improved tone without reopening the border.

The relationship broke down sharply from 2020. Morocco's normalization with Israel under the Abraham Accords (December 2020) alarmed Algiers, as did Morocco's intervention in the UN-monitored Guerguerat buffer zone in November 2020. Algeria cited Pegasus spyware used against Algerian officials, Morocco's public support for the Kabylie autonomy movement, and Morocco's alleged involvement in northern Algeria wildfires that killed dozens in August 2021. On 24 August 2021, Algeria severed diplomatic ties entirely. On 31 October 2021, Algeria did not renew the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline transit contract, shutting a route that had carried roughly 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Algerian gas annually through Morocco to Spain; Algeria redirected supply via the Medgaz undersea pipeline directly to Spain.

Current state

As of mid-2026, the rupture remains total. There are no diplomatic relations, the land border is shut, and the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline has not resumed. Both countries have pursued large-scale arms acquisitions: Algeria has deepened security ties with Russia and China, while Morocco has expanded its defense partnership with the United States and Israel and hosted US Africa Command exercises in 2025. UN Security Council Resolution 2797 (October 2025), adopted 11-0 with three abstentions, named Morocco's 2007 autonomy plan as potentially the most feasible basis for resolving the Western Sahara dispute, a significant diplomatic gain for Rabat. US envoys, including Trump's Africa adviser Massad Boulos, subsequently pressed Algiers for normalization; Algeria has not formally engaged with the US reconciliation push.

Relationships

The dispute is inseparable from Western Sahara: Morocco's control of the territory and Algeria's patronage of the Polisario Front are the structural core of the rivalry. Spain and the EU maintain competing interests, importing Algerian gas while depending on Morocco for migration management and trade along the southern Mediterranean. The Abraham Accords introduced Israel as a persistent friction point for Algiers. Within the African Union, Morocco (which rejoined in 2017) and Algeria compete for regional influence and proxy alignment. The closure of the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline removed one of the few remaining channels of bilateral economic interdependence.

What to watch

• Whether Algeria formally engages the US-backed normalization framework, or sustains its refusal into 2027.
• Frontline incidents in Western Sahara, where the Polisario Front resumed low-level military operations after November 2020, risking direct Morocco-Algeria military contact along the berm.
• Domestic politics in Algeria: any leadership transition in the "pouvoir" could shift the calculus, as economic constraints may create incentives for diplomatic opening.
• EU and Spanish pressure over gas supply and migration management, the most tangible external leverage available to third parties seeking to move the two states off the current frozen track.