The normalization of relations between Morocco and Israel in December 2020 transformed the longstanding rivalry between Rabat and Algiers into an increasingly internationalized confrontation, with the two rival countries, Western Sahara, the United States and Israel now occupying the same geopolitical chessboard.
Morocco restored diplomatic relations with Israel at the same time that President Donald Trump recognized Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in December 2020, paving the way for Morocco to join the Abraham Accords.
Since then, Morocco and Israel have signed a series of defense agreements and significantly expanded military cooperation. This “could become a real trigger for conflict between the two countries,” warns Akram Kharief, an Algerian journalist and defense and security analyst specializing in North Africa and the director of the online publication MENADEFENSE.
There is now extensive cooperation between Morocco and Israel in military, technology, intelligence, cybersecurity, weapons, drones and economic sectors. In 2021, the two countries signed a defense memorandum of understanding, and Morocco subsequently acquired advanced Israeli military technology, including drones, air defense systems and intelligence and satellite technology. In 2025 Israel appointed its first permanent economic attaché in Rabat, specifically to promote trade and investment and both countries signed a maritime agreement in 2023. Above all, the scale of military cooperation has deepened the rupture between Algeria and Morocco. “What really creates a problem with Algeria is that Morocco’s relationship with Israel goes far beyond diplomacy,” Kharief says.
A new strategic balance in the Maghreb
The deterioration in relations has included Algeria’s closure of its airspace to Moroccan aircraft and its maritime space to Moroccan vessels, “because in Algeria it is believed that there may be an Israeli aircraft behind every Moroccan aircraft or ship,” Kharief explains.
After severing diplomatic relations in 2021, Algeria also shut down the Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline (GME), which runs through Morocco, following the expiration of the 25-year contract that had governed the gas supply and the tripartite agreements.
Morocco’s military buildup in Western Sahara became particularly clear when the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) deployed US and Israeli-made drones in the conflict with the Polisario Front after the ceasefire broke down on November 13, 2020. Drone strikes against Sahrawis have left more than 300 people dead or injured and destroyed more than 100 civilian vehicles in recent years.
Competition between Algeria and Morocco for regional allies
As a result, “Algeria considers Morocco to be a kind of Israeli annex, where the Israeli military and intelligence services can do whatever, they want, and where an enemy that was previously far away has been brought to our borders, an enemy that has moved closer and established itself on Algeria’s doorstep,” Kharief said.
The alliance between Morocco and Israel has also altered the strategic balance across the Maghreb. Morocco and Algeria are increasingly competing for allies and influence in the region, drawing Mauritania and other Sahel countries into their rivalry and putting pressure on the African Union. Morocco has expanded what it calls its “religious diplomacy,” training imams throughout the region and in France and Spain to combat radicalism, and economic diplomacy, emphasizing South-South cooperation. At the same time, a new race is underway to secure routes for African gas to reach European markets.
King Mohammed VI is backing the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline, a 6,900-kilometer project that would be built in several phases along a combination of onshore and offshore routes. The pipeline is expected to cross 13 countries throughout West Africa before reaching the Spanish coast.
Nigeria has Africa’s largest natural gas reserves and is the world’s fifth-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. Algeria has responded by reviving a project first conceived in the 1970s: the 4,138-kilometer Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, which would run from Nigeria through Niger and onward toward the Mediterranean.
Western Sahara is a new battleground for international recognition
President Trump’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara represented a major diplomatic victory for Rabat. Morocco subsequently stepped-up pressure on European countries to follow President Trump’s lead and endorse its autonomy plan for the disputed territory.
The struggle over Western Sahara is therefore no longer confined to Morocco and the Polisario Front, it has increasingly become a battle for international recognition.
Spain is among the European countries that have backed Morocco’s position. In March 2022, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez sent a letter to Mohammed VI expressing his support for Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara. The decision was made without the agreement of his coalition partners, the opposition or broader public consultation. The following month, Sánchez and Mohammed VI signed a roadmap in Rabat establishing a new framework for bilateral relations.
Spain’s warming relations with Morocco draw ire from Algeria
The shift in Spain’s position prompted Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to suspend the Treaty of Friendship, Good-Neighbourliness and Cooperation with Spain and freeze bilateral commercial transactions in 2022.
Trade was effectively brought to a halt, although the long-term gas contract between Algeria’s state energy company Sonatrach and Spain’s Naturgy remained in place through 2030. The two companies are partners in the Medgaz pipeline, which connects Beni Saf in Algeria with Almería in Spain and has a capacity of 10.5 billion cubic meters of gas.
Energy cooperation thus became the key link preventing a complete rupture between Spain and Algeria during the recent diplomatic crisis.
In November 2024, President Tebboune ordered the resumption of commercial relations with Spain following French President Emmanuel Macron’s official visit to Morocco.
With the diplomatic crisis easing, Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares traveled to Algeria in March 2026 to prepare for a visit by Sánchez. On July 20, Sánchez traveled to Algiers and met with President Tebboune in an effort to restore bilateral relations. The two governments also agreed to hold a high-level meeting in October.
The diplomatic rift now appears to be receding. Madrid and Algiers are looking beyond gas and exploring opportunities to expand cooperation in renewable energy and green hydrogen.
The tensions between the two countries have escalated to the point that Le360, a pro-government Moroccan digital close to King Mohammed VI’s secretary, has openly accused Algeria of being behind the arrival of 72,000 people from Fnideq, in northern Morocco, into Ceuta through the El Tarajal border crossing. The digital newspaper cites a report by a Spanish-based Moroccan lobby claiming that many of the migrants who entered Spain by swimming had Algerian accents and that Algerian social media pages encouraged what became a humanitarian tragedy.
For his part, Moroccan Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi has blamed Spain’s migration policy for encouraging thousands of people to try to reach the country, while Spain has pointed to human-trafficking networks.
What next for Western Sahara?
The United States has taken on a central role in efforts to resolve the Western Sahara conflict, largely as a result of President Donald Trump’s intervention. At the end of his first presidential term, after losing the 2020 election, President Trump announced on Twitter —now X —t hat he had issued a presidential proclamation recognizing Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.
During his second term, President Trump has sought to push the parties toward a settlement, pressing for an urgent resolution to the conflict.
Following the adoption of a United Nations Security Council resolution on October 31, 2025, three rounds of informal preliminary talks were held in 2026 under US and UN auspices: two in Washington, on January 19–20 and February 23–24, and one in Madrid, on February 8–9.
At the latest meeting, however, the parties agreed to pause the ministerial talks and resume visits, bilateral meetings and the exchange of documents, according to Sahrawi diplomatic sources.
The Polisario Front is not opposed to autonomy as such. Its position is that autonomy should be one of the options presented to Sahrawis in a referendum. Morocco, by contrast, seeks to remove independence from the list of possible outcomes.
Rabat’s current objectives include ending the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), getting the Polisario Front placed on international lists of terrorist organizations, and having expelled from the African Union (AU).At the same time, Morocco continues its diplomatic campaign to win new international support for its position. The latest country to move closer to Rabat’s position was Colombia, in August.
The Western Sahara conflict has therefore become much more than a territorial dispute between Morocco and the Polisario Front. It is increasingly intertwined with the rivalry between Morocco and Algeria, Israel’s expanding role in North Africa, US policy, and Europe’s struggle to secure energy supplies. What began as a dispute over a former Spanish colony has evolved into one of the most consequential geopolitical fault lines in North Africa.
Sonia Moreno is a journalist focused on the Maghreb and Moroccan-Spanish relations and author of Morocco: The Uncomfortable Neighbor.
