Published: 09:12 AM, 09 December 2025
Diplomatic hostility between UAE and Morocco deteriorates: Reports
"Why are you interfering in our internal issues?" Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune's question addressed to an unspecified "Gulf" state last month has brought back into the spotlight the latent tensions between the North African country and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
"The problem starts when someone comes and messes with you in your own home, with suspect motivations.
Getting involved in issues we don't allow even great powers to get involved in […] We have wonderful relations with all the fraternal Gulf countries - except one," he told a room of the country's most powerful military leaders in October, reports the Middle East Eye.
For Algerians, there was no doubt who Tebboune was referring to. The UAE has featured prominently in the Algerian political and media discourse for some time now, with increasing hostility.
During the 2019 Hirak movement that toppled long-time President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the UAE became a common target of the protesters, who saw the Gulf state as a reactionary force fighting democratic movements in the region.
Placards were scrawled with messages like "No to the UAE on the land of the martyrs", referring to the Algerians killed in the country's liberation struggle against France.
Meanwhile, official circles in Algeria have repeatedly accused the UAE embassy of "suspicious moves" and its ambassador of being "on a mission to destabilize" the country.
In January 2024, following a high security meeting, authorities expressed their regret about "the hostile actions towards Algeria, emanating from a brotherly Arab country".
Two months later, Tebboune publicly criticized a state whose leaders had, according to him, been led to "sin" by "pride" and whose actions he deemed "illogical".
"[Algeria] never bends," he said, warning that "patience has its limits". He added: "If you try to treat us the way you treat others, you're mistaken. We have 5.63 million [martyrs] who died for this country. Those who want to approach us, let them do so."
More recently, UAE-based channel Sky News Arabia provoked official backlash after hosting a controversial Algerian academic who called the identity of the Amazigh minority a "French, Zionist construct", leading to his detention for undermining the country's "unity".
Algerian state television called the broadcast a "form of venom, filth, indecency", adding that the UAE had crossed all red lines.
